Work related stress in pregnancy..

[dantray01]

Hello,

My wife is 5 months pregnant and works as part of a small team in a large department of a national logistics company.

In the past three or four months one team member has gone on maternity leave and one has handed in notice and left. Each time the workload has been distributed to the remaining team members and no additional cover has been draughted in.

Today, a further team member has handed in their notice effectively leaving the three remaining team members to carry the workload. One of them has point blank refused to take on anymore work stating (fairly enough) that it is too much and she will not be doing any of it. The workload has subsequently been split between my wife and her colleague.

I feel (and my wife agrees) that this is too much for her to take on. My wife's position was already stressful enough before her workload began to increase four months ago and when you take into account that she is 5 months pregnant i think it's absolutely ridiculous what they are doing.

My wife is by no means soft and does not want to play the 'pregnancy card' but honestly feels that this is too much for her to handle. She has raised this with her manager this afternoon and been told politely that it's pretty much tough luck.

Is this right? Does her employer need to make any allowances now she is pregnant? My wife does not want to take any time off work but I don't feel she should be working in these conditions.

Any help or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated and if someone could tell me where we stand from a legal, or health and safety perspective I would be extremely grateful.

Many thanks,
Dan.

[twix123]

Your wife's employers should carry out a Health and Safety risk assessment. Follow this link from Directgov:

http://www.direct.gov...dfamilies/dg_10026556

Although as an employer I don't condone it, if necessary your wife should see her GP and get signed off work as sick for a period and see how her employers react / share out the workload if there is only one employee left willing to take on additional work!

Has your wife informed her employers that she is pregnant and passed on the form MATB1?

[cassa333]

How can her employer say tuff luck to her and not to the one who has refused?

Tell her to take a week off sick and see how they cope!

[pink-kittens]

I agree with cassa
Actually go off sick until week 36 of her pregnancy when SMP will cut in, then let them tell her tough

And yes, her employer does need to make allowances, just maybe not ones you expect

[PurplePolkadot]

i think they are all right here, she could go sick and let them sort it out, maybe use the time to do some research on her rights.

[redcrx]

yes she can go off sick, but do check out whether the company can force her to start maternity leave early if shes on long term sick. I know they can from a certain date but not sure what that date is.

[redcrx]

if your wife is thinking of returning after maternity and wanting to request less hours she may want to take that into consideration too.

[dantray01]

Hi,

Thanks for all your advice.

I have told her the same thing, go off sick and see how far that gets them but she'll not do that - she say's it's not fair on the only other person there. I'd say balls to the lot of them but she's just not the type.

And yes, she is planning on returning after the maternity leave and will be requesting a flexible working pattern. They were pretty accomodating last time so my wife doesn't really want to rock the boat.

Thanks again,
Dan.

[pink-kittens]

red, They cant do that, thankfully :)
Only once you get to 36 weeks