Work advise - penalised for being pregnant??

M

madge

Guest
Hi all,

a friend of mine works in a sales role for a multinational company. She recently received her annual sales target and is due to go on maternity leave at Christmas, which basically means she will miss 3 months of the company fiscal year.

She has been told that the company policy is to pay her basic salary when she is on maternity leave. However the problem is as follows: Her sales accounts will be managed by other reps in her absence who will be paid any due commissions on sales during her absence. This is fine. However, she has been told that any sales made during her absence will not be taken off the annual target for that region. This basically means that, even though she is on maternity leave, for 3 months in a year, she has to carry a 12 month target, which can't be right, can it????
It also means that the company will benefit from reps covering her region in her absence and generating business, as well giving her a 12 month target, which she won't reach, so they can pay her less commissions on her return.
Has anyone any advise? She has spoken to the HR department, who are only interested in the interest of the company not the employees, so a waste of time. (As I have worked for this same company for 5 years, I can vouch for that)

Your advise is greatly appreciated.....

M
 
If your friend hits her target, she gets a 'bonus'. A bonus is an extra and not part of her salary. Are the company taking back her car, phone, laptop?

On the other hand, her boss should have seen this coming and made some sort of accomodation. Maybe her boss is to blame rather than the company. Can she go over her boss's head. If she's good at her job, the company should want to encourage her to come back to work 'hungry for success'.

On the other hand, in sales, your targets go up, say, 10% every year. If they cut her some slack this year, she'll probably have a fantastic two years when she returns.

Having said all that, if her husband was a rep in the same company, he wouldn't be at the same disadvantage even though he's equally to blame! Maybe someone else can suggest a route to take?

Sluice
 
Hi Sluice,

many thanks for your reply.

I should have mentioned that my friend is in office based sales, so does not have the benifits of a car, phone or laptop etc.. Also, the basic salary paid is very low, typically 16-18K PA, so commissions are viewed as a necessity rather than a bonus.
While I would agree that technically anything you earn over your basic salary is a bonus, it still doesn't seem fair. If she was on sick leave in the same company, any sales that came into her territory would be removed from her annual target. Being pregnant means that they won't. Maybe there is nothing she can do, but if anyone has any advise, please let me know.

M
 
Hi Madge,
Considering the updated info, it doesn't seem very fair. Her boss should be more considerate. Perhaps she should move jobs?

Quote:
"If she was on sick leave in the same company, any sales that came into her territory would be removed from her annual target. Being pregnant means that they won't."

That doesn't sound legal and appears to be discriminatory since a man wouldn't be penalised/treated in the same way. Would the free legal advice centre be able to help?

Sluice
 
Balanced

Let's look at the full picture here:

"She has been told that the company policy is to pay her basic salary when she is on maternity leave."

I think it's a bad policy for an employer to pay someone salary while they are on maternity leave. The cost to an employer is huge. Take your friend on 18,000. She is entitled to 18 weeks unpaid maternity leave. This will cost her employer €6,000. It will actually be a bit more,because she will be entitled to full paid annual leave as well.

So from that point of view, your colleague is doing very well. It appears that they are not even deducting maternity benefit from the gross pay. This employer is stupidly generous in this regard.

Having said that, they are being unfair on the targets area, if the targets are relevant. Let's say the commission structure is 5% of all sales up to target and 10% above target. Then the target is relevant and should be apportioned.

Failure to achieve target could also be a disciplinary matter, which would also mean that it would have to be apportioned to be fair.

I would approach it as follows:
The company is paying her €6,000 which they are not legally obliged to do.
Work out how much she is losing by not having her target adjusted. If it's less than €6000, then I would not be hugely concerned. If it's more than €6000, then it should be challenged very firmly.

Has the employer written to her with the target?

If so, I would write a detailed letter to the decision maker disputing the target and showing the potential loss. Ask for the target to be apportioned. If it is not, then make a formal written protest disagreeing with the target. ( This will protect you in the future if there is any comeback for not achieving target).

Then call the Equality Agency or Authority and ask them for advice. Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you for reasons of pregnancy, and you employer appears to be doing this. There is actually a case in today's Irish Times on Page 9. Come to think of it, you could call them now before you dispute the issue.
 
Fair play

As per Balance

"Your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you for reasons of pregnancy, and you employer appears to be doing this."

This is correct - the target should be pro rated to take into account the maternity leave. What about the target for the following year ie. the remainder of the maternity leave? This should be pro rated too...

I work for a similar organisation (hopefully not the same one!!!) but I think the HR department would be far more anxious to ensure that the policies are seen to be fair thus avoiding expensive legal proceedings and damaging its reputation.

MAX
 
Fair play

This appears to be blatant discrimination.
Whilst Balanced attempts at rationalising the scenario aren't too far wide of the mark, I'd go a step further.
The chances are that the company pays full pay to all employees on maternity leave both sales and non-sales, so therefore the amount of full-pay is not relevant to this case. In most situations the company will seek to have the employee reimburse the Statutory Maternity Pay while the employee remains on full pay.

This is a simple case of discrimination as it is illegal to discriminate against employees on maternity leave, and the fact that the sick leave policy differs merely adds weight to the case.

Seek advice from the Equality Authority, then present this advice to your Manager and HR Dept. If they are in any way professional they should make the necessary changes immediately, if not you should consider taking a legal case against them.
 
Maternity leave payment by companies

Re Balanced's point...where companies choose to pay an employee during their maternity leave it is topping up their state maternity benefit (currently approx €235p.w. at the maximum, which is based on previous earnings) to the salary they would have received. So they are not paying the full amount for the 18 weeks.

Also, women, despite being higher achievers in education at every level, still tend to get lower salaries and many people believe that this is because employers are factoring in the fact that they will probably go on maternity leave. However, birth rates are pretty low at the moment with average family sizes now below 2 children, so employers who wanted to factor in maternity leave on a scientific basis (less than 2 lots of 18 weeks over a 30-40 year career) would probably be paying women a lot more than they are at the moment.

BTW, the majority of companies don't top up maternity benefit, although I think this would be a very cheap way of winning a lot of loyalty from good employees.

Not sure about this individuals case. It's always tricky territory when it's a bonus rather than salary.
 
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