Advice regarding role change while pregnant

protege_moi

Hi all. Currently am 13 weeks pregnant and work in retail. My current role includes ordering and packing. I can be expected to carry boxes etc weighing up to 15/20kg and pull cages twice my weight. When my health and safety talk was taken place I was assured that if I had to move to a till position due to being unable to continue on the floor a role would be created to reflect my current hours. This was however disputed by the supervisor of that area that it would be impossible to do as others are more entitled to the hours I currently have then I would be if I had to. Currently I work Monday to Fri and finish at 4. Can they legitimately make me have to work any day Monday to Sunday from 7-10 after over a year in my position. I need to know where I stand because I'm stressed over what's going to happen, I'm stressed with my position before I found out I'm expecting and now with my back starting to go I'm worried this will just force me out

dar100

It's a health and safety issue, read the health and safety act. It's law, they can't have you doing that.

On a side note, your supervisor sounds like an awful go****e!!

Irish_Elect_Eng

They may not be able to facilitate the hours required.

But if they cannot then Health and Safety Benefit may be an option for you.

whoopsadoodles

What does your contract say? Does it say your hours are Monday to Friday 8-4 or does it say that you could be expected to work any hours over 7 days?

Also, unless it is actually affecting you, I wouldn't be overly concerned about lifting boxes if you're doing it correctly. Pregnant mothers often have other children hanging out of them with no issues.

protege_moi

whoopsadoodles wrote: »

What does your contract say? Does it say your hours are Monday to Friday 8-4 or does it say that you could be expected to work any hours over 7 days?

Also, unless it is actually affecting you, I wouldn't be overly concerned about lifting boxes if you're doing it correctly. Pregnant mothers often have other children hanging out of them with no issues.

I suffer with back and shoulder problems. With being pregnant I'm unable to take pain relief or anti inflammatory tablets. All staff are on part time contracts bar long term 5+year staff hence why I was asking here as to my entitlements

whoopsadoodles

protege_moi wrote: »

I suffer with back and shoulder problems. With being pregnant I'm unable to take pain relief or anti inflammatory tablets. All staff are on part time contracts bar long term 5+year staff hence why I was asking here as to my entitlements

You can take pain relief while pregnant. Best speak to a doctor about what's allowed specifically.

What does your contract state though? Be it full or part time. Does it specify your hours or does it say any hours the shop is open etc. This is the key here really because if it says that you are obliged to work the hours chosen at the discretion of your manager then it's irrelevant whether you're pregnant or not because they can enforce your contract regardless.

Mrs OBumble

Can you talk to a manager who can sort the supervisor out?

It may be that the supervisor is simply standing up for the the rights of the other staff: if some of them have been on permanent days, they may not be at all pleased to be forced onto nights to accommodate you.

davo10

Your employer is required to make arrangements to limit any risk to you during your pregnancy/illness. If you unable to do jobs which require you to lift items or stand on your feet to long, they should try to move you to a job which does not require you to do this. However, they are not required to make a position for you which does not exist. They cannot for instance reduce the hours of other employees or give you their job, just because you are pregnant. If no position exists for you, then they may have to sign you off on H&S grounds, you could then claim benefit but you will not be paid by your employer.

_Brian

It's unbelievable that supervisors/managers would be so inflexible to an expectant mother. It really is loose loose for the employer as apart from abusing one employee the other women in the organisation will surely be demotivated seeing what may potentially be ahead of them.

The company absolutely should facilitate you to move to a suitable position so you may continue working and contributing.
Rather than struggling on and risking your pregnancy I would advise you to appeal the supervisors decision to someone more senior. Failing this gonto your gp, explain that work cannot facilitate anything more suitable and you should be put on maternity related illness, you should be able to claim illness benifet during this leave, although I'm not 100% on that.

As a long term manager I'm disgusted to see this attitude towards expectant mothers.

Bring in a note from your GP when appealing this decision. Make your appeal in writing and ask for the decision in writing, if it's being refused ask them to detail why you are not entitled to a temp job reassignment.

ibarelycare

_Brian wrote: »

It's unbelievable that supervisors/managers would be so inflexible to an expectant mother. It really is loose loose for the employer as apart from abusing one employee the other women in the organisation will surely be demotivated seeing what may potentially be ahead of them.

The company absolutely should facilitate you to move to a suitable position so you may continue working and contributing.
Rather than struggling on and risking your pregnancy I would advise you to appeal the supervisors decision to someone more senior. Failing this gonto your gp, explain that work cannot facilitate anything more suitable and you should be put on maternity related illness, you should be able to claim illness benifet during this leave, although I'm not 100% on that.

As a long term manager I'm disgusted to see this attitude towards expectant mothers.

Bring in a note from your GP when appealing this decision. Make your appeal in writing and ask for the decision in writing, if it's being refused ask them to detail why you are not entitled to a temp job reassignment.

Is the employer supposed to create a role from thin air, or cut other people's hours?

protege_moi

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Can you talk to a manager who can sort the supervisor out?

It may be that the supervisor is simply standing up for the the rights of the other staff: if some of them have been on permanent days, they may not be at all pleased to be forced onto nights to accommodate you.

I can understand their viewpoint as there has been this issue arising only recently with other staff members being transferred and their previous hours having to be honoured due to a precedent being set. The manager and hr managers words not the staff. I'm just curious to my legal standing as I do not expect a role to be created, I was told I would have to take it and because I have the set hours in my current role that they would be honoured essentially three well if I am placed now a four person start. The supervisor disagreed due to not enough hours. Again I understand but when your receiving conflicting information from people who are meant to know it's frustrating. With regards my current role I'm currently doing two people's work and despite requests there's no assistance or any of the work being lifted, add my physical issues and the stress of my work this is making me anxious to know where I stand because if my doc signs me off I probably won't even get the full time hours I have been receiving if the role changes and the hr manager is adamant my current hours have to and will be kept if there's a role change required

_Brian

ibarelycare wrote: »

Is the employer supposed to create a role from thin air, or cut other people's hours?

No but in general for the likes of this a team can be shuffled round, maybe a teller could be swapped with OP for the duration..

A decent manager will have a go at sorting something out rather than expecting a pregnant woman to continue doing heavy work.. Or know enough to meet with OP and put a plan in place to cover this..

dar100

Under the health and safety act, and maternity leave act, they must do one of the following

Remove the issues that is a risk

Remove you from the risk factor

Or give you health and safety leave up until you take maternity leave.

However, I'm not sure how your hours of work re contract will impact this!!

Generally employers know little about their obligations!!

In addition to employers obligations, employees also have obligations, one of which is not putting YOURSELF at risk

Fries-With-That

ibarelycare wrote: »

Is the employer supposed to create a role from thin air, or cut other people's hours?

Its not really cutting other peoples hours is it, there is still the same number of hours of work available.

What it means is a pregnant colleague needs to be moved to a suitable role that allows her work in an environment that does not pose a risk to her, her unborn child and her work colleagues.

It sounds like the supervisor didn't have a proper understanding of the issues that might arise, and was only considering the fact that they would have to adjust their established work rotas and the ensuing headaches this might create.

The supervisor might have approached it differently and consulted with other staff outlining the circumstances that required rota changes, they might find that work changes might actually suit some of the OPs colleagues.

Best of luck with your baby and hopefully your supervisor sorts out their poor situation handling skills.

protege_moi

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Its not really cutting other peoples hours is it, there is still the same number of hours of work available.

What it means is a pregnant colleague needs to be moved to a suitable role that allows her work in an environment that does not pose a risk to her, her unborn child and her work colleagues.

It sounds like the supervisor didn't have a proper understanding of the issues that might arise, and was only considering the fact that they would have to adjust their established work rotas and the ensuing headaches this might create.

The supervisor might have approached it differently and consulted with other staff outlining the circumstances that required rota changes, they might find that work changes might actually suit some of the OPs colleagues.

Best of luck with your baby and hopefully your supervisor sorts out their poor situation handling skills.

There's a few that would happily swap but for reasons they won't be. I chased up hr and citizens information. Basically according to hr I'm not going to get my full work week even if my role changes so essentially I'm being forced to stay in my current role. Luckily a colleague has been taking the brunt of the heavy lifting to help me. As for citizens information essentially I was advised that due to my contract my hours role etc can be changed without warning even with pregnancy and I've no leg to stand on because the contract states part time. Dread to think what will mean when I return after the baby comes but for now I'm stuck until I'm forced to be signed off

Fries-With-That

protege_moi wrote: »

There's a few that would happily swap but for reasons they won't be. I chased up hr and citizens information. Basically according to hr I'm not going to get my full work week even if my role changes so essentially I'm being forced to stay in my current role. Luckily a colleague has been taking the brunt of the heavy lifting to help me. As for citizens information essentially I was advised that due to my contract my hours role etc can be changed without warning even with pregnancy and I've no leg to stand on because the contract states part time. Dread to think what will mean when I return after the baby comes but for now I'm stuck until I'm forced to be signed off

I'm not sure I understand how an employer can treat an employee like this.

You are working full time at present (on a part time contract) doing a job that involves heavy manual labour.

You are now in a position that because you are pregnant and might not be able to do the heavy manual labour your employer is saying that they will accommodate your need to move within the company to lighter work but they will have to reduce your hours to part time work.

Do some research yourself on your terms and conditions of employment, and have a read of this, if my reading of this is correct might have a good argument to take back to your employer.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/types_of_employment/employment_rights_of_part_time_workers.html