Zero Hour Contract - Maternity Leave/Pay

Hi All, Was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on my work situation My employer put me on a zero hour contract in September for 3 months without any notice and did not provide me with an updated employment contract to reflect this. It’s approaching the end of November and my employer has not been in touch to let me know if I will be returning to my normal working hours (20 hours a week). I am currently 23 weeks pregnant and I have a mat B1 certificate to send. I’m not sure if I will be entitled to maternity leave/pay and how to approach my employer about this situation any advice on this would be much appreciated.

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Where you a permanent employee prior to this? What was the reason for moving you to 0 hours?

Yes … I believe the reason my employer put me on a zero hour contract was because of a dispute that was settled via ACAS - which would be paid in instalments over three months. He said he can’t pay me the settlement alongside my monthly wage. I did seek advice on this from ACAS and the advisor explained that it’s something he should not have done especially without prior notice. I just chose not to take it further due to being pregnant and thought it would be best to avoid the stress - which I was under a lot of whilst working there.

Zero hours contracts are now illegal in the UK (coming from an employer) the minimum is now 4hrs a week so I’d check that- then even so, everyone in permanent employment is entitled to 26-39 weeks of maternity leave which I believe is at either 90% of your usual income or statutory maternity pay (whichever is lower), statutory is around £780 per month- hope this helps!

Zero hour contacts are not illegal in the uk the term might be but causal work contracts are fine. I have a second job and that’s a zero hour and I’m not entitled to maternity pay from that job. I would contact acas again to see where you stand and then talk to your boss. If you haven’t signed a new contact with zero hours then your old contract should still stand if you had to take it further

I think i read on gov.uk as well that 0 hr contracts does not offer maternity pay

Without knowing all the details it's hard to advise on the situation. I'd call acas as suggested. On your current ts and Cs you aren't eligible for any maternity pay.

Thanks everyone I have spoken to ACAS and they said it’s best to get in touch with the employer to see what his response will be in regards to SMP… If in dispute I will have to seek legal employment advice to see if my old contract is viable, and the changes that have been made by my employer to my working hours/contract were according to the variation clause that outlines “reasonable changes” with “prior notice” and “evidenced in writing” which was not done by my employer. I really do not want to be going through the hassle of disputing especially when pregnant .. hoping it all works out for the best.

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