SOME ADVICE PLEASE !!!

[mark_canaries]

hi my wife started with royal mail as a bag carrier at the begining of december on a 22.5 hr a week 6 month contract, she was given a round and a map on her second day at told to get on with it as it was autumn pressure and they had no staff to train, anyway she struggled through all the bad weather and got on with the job, and after a month or so began to enjoy it when she had got the hang of it!
We discovered she was pregnant in february and she informed her boss, after a phone call from atos (i think) they told her that later in the pregnancy they recommend 75% indoor and 25% outdoor, after the report she was allowed to leave 1/4 of her route behind. She has continued with this since then, last week her boss called her into the office and told her how well she had done all things considered with all the snow , pregnancy etc and added that when she was ready to return to work after the baby to give him a call and he would keep a job open for her and she would not have to go through the whole application process again because in his words 'good staff are hard to come by'. We took this thhat her contract would not be renewed on the 14th june when it finishes!
firstly is this possible?
and secondly she has since had a very bad time with migranes and headaches, she had 3 day's off then returned into work as she was made to feel guiltyfor being off, only for the migrane to return when she started reading the mail, so she went home sick again. she then took the following day off sick and was then called into the office the day after and told by her boss that she needs to make adecision.... and that she cannot now do the job and should quit !He also stated that she is not entitled to sick pay ( which she is ssp ), when she stated that atos had reported that she should work more indoors later on in her preganancy he said that there was no work for him indoors, and that she should go homa and talk it over with me to a view to quiting! i must also add that she is not in the union, although she has asked for papers on a couple of occasions, but i work for parcel force and am i union memeber.
many thanks

[not me]

well joining the union ASAP is a must
TBH she should have been from the start and definatly once she got pregnant(congratulations BTW)

sick pay is as per contract,i believe its 12 months before you get full rM sick pay
obviously SSP is a given

as for her contract situation
the big problem is up to 1 year you have very little rights in any job
staff can be sacked/paid off for any reason TBH
Im sure some of the union guys will give better info,
however as you have seen (is it the same in PF?) that RM managers cant be trusted and will s**t on you at every opportunity it suits them

[fishtank]

Maternity rights for women on fixed term (temporary)contracts
Released: 3rd March, 2010

Generally speaking, a temporary or fixed term contract has no special status in law, and if you are an employee, you will have all the rights of a permanent employee. In fact, it is unlawful to treat fixed term workers less favourably than permanent workers. You have all the maternity and health and safety rights of ordinary employees.

If you are on a fixed term contract which is not renewed, it is still a dismissal under law, and has the potential to be an unfair dismissal, depending on the circumstances.
If your contract ends and is not renewed, you need to look at the reasons why. If there is no longer a need for you to do the work, for example because the project has ended, you are redundant, and if you have 2 years’ continuous service with the employer you will be entitled to a redundancy payment. If this happens while you are on maternity leave, you have some special rights.
If the job still exists, and your contract is not renewed because of your pregnancy or maternity leave, the dismissal will be discriminatory and automatically unfair. A woman who is dismissed while pregnant must be given written reasons for her dismissal.It is automatically unfair to dismiss a woman because she is pregnant or intends to take maternity leave even if this means that she is unable to work for the majority of the contract, whether because of maternity leave or because of health and safety reasons.

The Working Families Team
http://www.workingfamilies.org.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
1-3 Berry Street
London
EC1V 0AA

Get her to join the union ASAP

cwu__1255527377_RMG_Application_Form_(Word_-_i.doc

Flag it up to her rep immediately.....and congratulations

[mark_canaries]

well she has been informed today that she was taken on to cover long term sick absence and that her contract will not be renewed as she is no longer needed due to there now being no long term sickness, i presume she now has to accept this reson even though we know that there is still work for her????
thanks in advance!