Offered a new job at 17 weeks… didnt tell the employer, any advice would be helpful 😅
Show your support
Your current employer would have to pay SMP, so the first 6 weeks would be at 90% pay (assuming that’s higher than £184 a week). Then it drops to basic rate. Your new employer wouldn’t have to pay, as you know, and mat allowance is a standard £184ish throughout. You can get mat allowance before your due date though, which gives you a little in advance. Swings and roundabouts with pay, it’s not much better where you are. However, accepting a new role without telling them you are pregnant runs the risk of them being pissed when you start. There’s no obligation to tell them and they can’t discriminate against you but equally, if you didn’t pass probation, it would be on you to prove they discriminated and that would be impossible. I’d write them an honest email and say you can’t wait to join them, and you look forward to accepting their job offer and you feel it’s important to tell them now that you are pregnant and you hope that doesn’t affect anything. (1 of 2)
If they withdraw the offer, they clearly discriminated against you (which you could dispute), but would you want to work for a firm pregnant, when you know their attitude? And it leaves you on SMP at your current employer. Or, they happily continue to employ you and you are open to ask them more questions. And they are pleased it isn’t a shock on your first day.
Okay wow, both of these were really helpful! I’m definitely going to email the employer tomorrow and see what they say. Apparently when you work for companies with less than 15 employees, they don’t have to accept you because you’re pregnant. Which could happen, fingers crossed 🤞🏽, thanks again! Xxxx
@Eleece wait what? I’ve never heard of that!? I’m pretty sure maternity discrimination is never okay but I’m happy to be corrected! Do you have any links to info? I’m about to go down a rabbit hole 😆
@Rosie my phone does this weird thing of changing my vpn, so I think when I was researching, I was searching under a different country, because I cannot find anything related to it for in the uk. But it’s a thing in America 😭 https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/legal-rights-pregnant-workers-under-federal-law
If you’re employed, then maternity allowance and SMP is essentially the same. For the bulk of the leave, you get £184/week or 90% of your salary, whatever is lower. Here is the gov website on MA, I’m assuming you are employed not self-employed based on what you’ve written in the post, so it’s that first section that applies to you (“If you’re employed or have recently left employment”): https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/what-youll-get So if the new job pays better than your current one, I’m not sure how you’d be worse off on MA unless your current employer has a great enhanced mat pay offer?