Unfair pay for maternity leave

anonymous83

Hi I hope this post will make sense. I work for a company that up until a year ago paid full wages during the 26 weeks maternity leave and the state maternity benefit was made payable to my employer. Our old sickness and leave policy stated this and there were no problem with this.

Due to cutbacks last year we were asked to approve a new policy which stated that the company would pay 50% of our wages during those 26 weeks. There was no mention of our state maternity benefit being made payable to the company. Staff agreed to this as we believed we would get 50% wages plus the state maternity benefit. However, when I approached my company (I'm due my baby in October) they said I had to hand over my state maternity benefit to them.
My question is, can an employer do this if it is not stated in our sickness and leave policy??

slimjimmc

Is the new policy a complete statement of your pay conditions or is it just a document detailing amendments to the old policy. If it's only amendments then I would expect previous conditions stand.What lead staff to believe they would get state benefit in addition to the 50% wage, was it written anywhere or agreed in any negotiation?

mrsbyrne

Your problem is that Irish employment legislation doesn't include any obligation on an employer to pay an employee while on maternity leave. It doesn't include sick pay either incidentally, but that's a different matter.
So you cannot persue the employer through the normal route, ie making a complaint to workplace relations because there simply isn't an Act to make the complaint under.
You would have to engage, and pay, a solicitor specialising in employment contract law. IMHO it wouldn't be worth it.
Maternity Benefit is €230 per week. If your employer takes it and gives you 50% of your wages instead, I am presuming that the 50% is at least €230???
Don't ever confuse
Sick leave
Annual leave
Maternity leave
All entirely seperate issues.

Ken.

From my reading of this http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_to_families_and_children/maternity_benefit.html
all your entitled to is the €230 per week payment while your off. If the 50% is more than this I'd be keeping quite.

anonymous83

slimjimmc wrote: »

Is the new policy a complete statement of your pay conditions or is it just a document detailing amendments to the old policy. If it's only amendments then I would expect previous conditions stand.What lead staff to believe they would get state benefit in addition to the 50% wage, was it written anywhere or agreed in any negotiation?

The new policy is a complete statement of conditions and was all rewritten last June. We believed we would get to keep our state benefit plus the 50% wages as there was no mention of taking it off us.
On the other hand, the old policy stated full pay plus handing over our state pay

anonymous83

mrsbyrne wrote: »

Your problem is that Irish employment legislation doesn't include any obligation on an employer to pay an employee while on maternity leave. It doesn't include sick pay either incidentally, but that's a different matter.
So you cannot persue the employer through the normal route, ie making a complaint to workplace relations because there simply isn't an Act to make the complaint under.
You would have to engage, and pay, a solicitor specialising in employment contract law. IMHO it wouldn't be worth it.
Maternity Benefit is €230 per week. If your employer takes it and gives you 50% of your wages instead, I am presuming that the 50% is at least €230???
Don't ever confuse
Sick leave
Annual leave
Maternity leave
All entirely seperate issues.

I would be getting €30 more than state pay

Senna

What does the new policy say? Did you and others just assume or was it discuss but not put in the new policy?

anonymous83

Senna wrote: »

What does the new policy say? Did you and others just assume or was it discuss but not put in the new policy?

We were given a copy of what the board of directors wanted to implement but as there was nothing written about taking state pay off us it wasn't discussed

anonymous83

anonymous83 wrote: »

We were given a copy of what the board of directors wanted to implement but as there was nothing written about taking state pay off us it wasn't discussed

The new policy that was introduced in June 2013 states that ‘Statutory maternity leave consists of 26 consecutive weeks leave where employees will receive statutory maternity/ social welfare benefit from the Department of Social and Family Affairs’.
It further states that ‘during the 26 weeks of maternity leave, the company will pay the employee 50% of pay

lynski

ken wrote: »

From my reading of this http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_to_families_and_children/maternity_benefit.html
all your entitled to is the €230 per week payment while your off. If the 50% is more than this I'd be keeping quite.

that is all you are entitled to from the state, but your employer can pay you or not, you just cant work.

mrsbyrne

anonymous83 wrote: »

I would be getting €30 more than state pay

Look at it this way. Your €30 per week better off then the majority of private industry employees who just manage on the €230.
Don't forget you an take up to 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave after the 26 weeks is up and that you are accruing Annual leave and public holidays throughout the entire paid/unpaid period. If you want to take unpaid leave you should write to your employer 4 weeks before you are due to return and inform him/ her of your new return date.
If you want to then tack on your annual leave public holidays to the end of the maternity leave you could request this in the same letter. At least when you get the holidays you will be back in "pay".
The employer doesn't have to agree to the holidays , but most do.

Victor

mrsbyrne wrote: »

Your problem is that Irish employment legislation doesn't include any obligation on an employer to pay an employee while on maternity leave. It doesn't include sick pay either incidentally, but that's a different matter.
So you cannot persue the employer through the normal route

**cough** Contract**cough**

mrsbyrne

Victor wrote: »

**cough** Contract**cough**

When I say the normal way I mean through the rights commissioner, I made that clear. What are you trying to say? Which legislative Act can the OP make a complaint under and why?

JimsAlterEgo

was it explicitly stated in your first contract that state money went to the company, if so there would be an expectation that it should be the same in the revised contract. If not then you dont have a leg to stand on.

anonymous83

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

was it explicitly stated in your first contract that state money went to the company, if so there would be an expectation that it should be the same in the revised contract. If not then you dont have a leg to stand on.

Yes it was stated in the first contract but it had been removed in the new one

JimsAlterEgo

anonymous83 wrote: »

Yes it was stated in the first contract but it had been removed in the new one

in that case you could reasonably have expected if it was the case for it to be still there, how far you want to take it is another thing. Have you pointed this out to mnanagment and/or HR?

anonymous83

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

in that case you could reasonably have expected if it was the case for it to be still there, how far you want to take it is another thing. Have you pointed this out to mnanagment and/or HR?

Yes I've pointed it out to my manager and it was discussed at a board meeting and they want my state pay.

henryd65

anonymous83 wrote: »

I would be getting €30 more than state pay

You should also note that there is no USC or PRSI payable on maternity benefit. You should clarify with your employers if they will adjust for this.

slimjimmc

JimsAlterEgo wrote: »

in that case you could reasonably have expected if it was the case for it to be still there, how far you want to take it is another thing. Have you pointed this out to mnanagment and/or HR?

I've seen similar to this before. The company had omitted a similar clause when they negotiated a new agreement but it wasn't noticed by the company until they tried to invoke the missing clause some time later. The company ultimately conceded the old clause no longer existed but I think it took a lot of pressure from unions and some independent arbitration.

anonymous83

slimjimmc wrote: »

I've seen similar to this before. The company had omitted a similar clause when they negotiated a new agreement but it wasn't noticed by the company until they tried to invoke the missing clause some time later. The company ultimately conceded the old clause no longer existed but I think it took a lot of pressure from unions and some independent arbitration.

I'm hoping that will be the case. I'm going to citizens advice after work today as they have a solicitor there so hoping they can help too. Was thinking of contacting workplace relations too