Change of contract regarding paid maternity leave - legal?

You would be surprised ..... , up to this point you are doing as good a job as anyone ...
Agreed. In my (indirect) experience unions are not good in private sector settings or when the legalities of a situation are not clear-cut.
 
With sites like this one, and industrial relations lawyers for bigger issues , unions have focussed more on collective bargaining in both Public / Private sector.Individual issues can be tricky , and would depend on quality of Union representative you have.

I would always advise people to check out their rights, as leaving issues to third parties can lead to problems ..
 
With sites like this one, and industrial relations lawyers for bigger issues , unions have focussed more on collective bargaining in both Public / Private sector.Individual issues can be tricky , and would depend on quality of Union representative you have.

I agree. Most unions seem to be little more than political lobby groups.
 
Agreed.Unions use their leverage with employers organisations (IBEC) and politicians to get best possible deal for their members.
 
IBEC represents employers in Ireland, suppose you could call them a Union ...


ICTU is 32 county Union organisation,

ICTU and IBEC have working relationship, but no affiliation.
 
Quick update:

Had my meeting.

It did NOT go well.....

Will post more details when I get time.

They are insisting that my contract will not have Maternity Benefit.

I pushed my case as much as I could but they insisted they 'can't afford it'.

Not sure what to do now, am afraid to push it because of what the stress could do to baby, also because of the long term view that I don't want to alienate them (I know, I know.....).

Have to have a good think about the bigger picture.

I am raging that this can happen to someone in 2008.

Will post more later, as much as I can within the boundaries of keeping my anonymity a little bit at least.

Thanks for everyone's support in the lead up to this, it helped me a lot to at least state my case clearly.
 
IBEC represents employers in Ireland, suppose you could call them a Union...


ICTU is 32 county Union organisation,

ICTU and IBEC have working relationship, but no affiliation.
IBEC is registered as a trade union in order to have a license to negotiate on behalf of its members (see [broken link removed] for details). Its status as a union is not my opinion; it is a fact. What I am not sure of is if, as a union, it is affiliated to the ICTU.
 
Quick update:

They are insisting that my contract will not have Maternity Benefit.

I pushed my case as much as I could but they insisted they 'can't afford it'.

But they paid it before, correct? So how come they can't afford it now?

I do not remember if you have taken legal advice or not, but maybe this is a good time to do so. You may decide to drop it at this stage, but you don't know what the future holds. Just in case there are further problems down the line, it is worth keeping very clear detailed records of meetings etc and taking that legal advice now.


best of luck,
Diziet
 
Are you the only person who's contract has been changed?

In theory all new (future) employees are getting a new contract.

One person who joined in the last six months supposedly got the new contract.

In theory I am the only existing employee whose contract has changed, they are using the 'opportunity' whereby I am changing to part-time hours, to re-issue and change my contract in this regard.

I have no way of knowing anyone else's contractual agreement or Ts and Cs.
 
But they paid it before, correct?

No, they didn't. I just missed out on qualifying so I didn't get it, which is as I would expect. In fact, I don't think they ever paid anyone MB so far, and have obviously turned against the idea now that the penny has dropped that women have babies ;-)

I do not remember if you have taken legal advice or not, but maybe this is a good time to do so. You may decide to drop it at this stage, but you don't know what the future holds. Just in case there are further problems down the line, it is worth keeping very clear detailed records of meetings etc and taking that legal advice now.


I have not taken legal advice but I take your point and I will certainly consider it. And yes, I am logging the evidence.

One thing I have already done is asked them to summarise the meeting and email it to me. On past form, that could take quite some time........
 
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I hope it works out for you mumofthree, just keep as level-headed as you are now and I'm sure that you will get through it one way or another.
 
Out of interest, who was the mediator, solicitor, HR , out of work actor ???

I would summarise and send minutes of meeting to them, if they feel they are incorrect, you will get prompt reply.


You have a strong case, so it depends on where you want to take it.
 
Dear Mumof3, I am sorry to hear about your situation. I had an employer issue in the past (non-maternity) and going to get legal advise from a solicitor early saved a lot of confusion for me in terms of whether I had a case etc. This helped me remain strong as I cannot emphasize how stressful such disagreements can be. I followed the process of meeting with the employer, then going on to mediation. In my case, the mediation was a waste of time - the employer paid for the service and the recommendations were crazy plus it delayed the process for weeks. However, next day the employer started ridiculous disciplinary procedure against me, so be warned that going down this route can be very unpleasant, very stressful and may make things so uncomfortable that that you wish to leave or they may try to fire you (as in my case) so think carefully before you make your decision. In my case, I resigned before they could fire me and my solicitor took over and started direct contact with them lodging the case with the tribunal. Thankfully, they settled. I don't regret my decision but cannot over emphasize that you need think carefully about what you do and get solid legal advise before you make any decision as it could be unpleasant and stressful journey - not good for you or the baby!
 
Mumofthree

Terrible situation. On your meeting re the minutes - if they are normally slow about these things - write up your own minutes and circulate to the involved parties for comments etc to keep the ball rolling. Will give them an idea that you are serious and may go to outside advice.

D
 
To those who suggest writing up my own minutes and sending them in - good idea. Will wait a while longer but definitely will do that if need be, and will challenge / correct their version if need be.

Marge, thanks for the advice / story. That is exactly why I hesitate to pursue this all the way. Its not that I am afraid of them, its just that I have to see the big picture.

Its only money, ok I would prefer it in my pocket than theirs but you can't win them all.

I am taking the long term view now and one way or the other I hope I will come out of this better than the measly few thousand that is at stake.

I will continue to fight the good fight as far as I can, and for a reasonable timeframe, without getting stressed or alienating them too much.

In any case, I hope I have quite a few years of my career left. In the interests of anonymity I can't say too much about my future plans, but I am determined that in due course, this episode will spur me on more than hold me back.
 
I don't want to keep saying the same thing but the way you are dealing with this is just brilliant.
 
Final update: they won.

I had to back down and sign the contract. They would not take no for an answer.

I took legal advice from our family solicitor. He basically said, don't go there, only the legal profession will win. If I wanted to prove contructive dismissal, the onus is on the employee. If I refused to sign the contract, and somehow forced them to pay me what I am due, then I would win the battle but lose the war (terrible way to think of your job, isn't it!). He said they would prob be waiting in the long grass for any excuse to fire me in the future.

So I signed it (there have been other issues regarding holiday accrual and so on that I have basically had to compromise (ie capitulate) hugely on as well).

It's a bit depressing to think that they have so much power over me, depsite all the employment law to the contrary.

However, pregnancy has gone well so far thank God, despite the incredible stress I have felt due to this issue.

Just wanted to thank everyone for their input, it really helped me get my head clear. Hope these posts help someone else, even if it is not good news really.

Thanks again.
 
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