Pregnancy and dismissal

You need to dismiss, pay her her weeks notice, and give a letter telling that it is because of her poor performance (I would advise giving a bit more detail in the letter).

A new mother is entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) if by the end of the 15th week before the Expected Week of Childbirth (EWC):

1 - She has been continuously employed for 16 weeks.

2 - her normal weekly earnings for the previous 8 weeks were not less than the lower earnings limit for the payment of primary class 1 National Insurance Contributions.

Hope this helps.

Phil - She has only claimed she is pregnant but is due to go the doctors next week to confirm. Im guessign the employee has to be in employment for a while before being able to claim Maternity?

Nick, has she only said she is pregnant?
I now someone who ran a small village shop, and this is almost a carbon copy of events in there..

She kept the girl on for fear of sacking someone illegally (the girl advised her of this!) and it got worse, shoplifting by her friends and money going from the till.

One day I witnessed friends of the girl shoplifting; the police were called, the girl was arrested, and it turned out she wasn't pregnant, but used that to scare the shop owner after thinking (rightfully) that she was going to be sacked.

The shop keeper was told that she should have got proof of the pregnancy; Could the shop owner have done this in the early stages?

Hope everything is sorted soon Nick.

am i correct, from what i have read above, that a person who has just started in a company can claim maternity from the off?

Thank you everyone for your comments, a diary of events / incidents was already in place and it seems luckily for me that the errors happened before she mentioned her pregnancy. Im expecting a back lash from her as she has already started to read up on Maternity Pay etc, but i think the sooner i act the better it will be for me and more inportantly the salon.

And, adding to David's comments about diary notes, having a record of the instances where you have drawn to the person's attention your concerns about their performance, given them clear guidance on what standards are expected, confirmed that they are absolutely clear about what is required, given additional training if necessary and given a date by when the standard should be achieved 9and when progress will be reviewed) would also help to demonstrate that you are acting on performance not pregnancy.

Diary notes of specific incident, actions - both theirs and yours, or customer comments are always useful, especially where shown to be prior to the advising of pregnancy.

Correct Kevin. the "trick" being to have evidence available to support your actions. i.e. that the individual was not performing/did not suit the job and that this is the reason why you finish her, NOT because she is pregnant.

The current law states that an employee must have 1 year's continuous employment with the same employer to qualify for unfair dismissal protection. BUT, there are exceptions, one of which is where dismissal is linked with pregnancy and maternity rights. You need to be very clear that the grounds for dismissal are totally unconnected with the pregnancy. If you can't do that you may be stuck with her. Seek expert advice.

Hi, new to this, but would great apreciate any advice. I run a hairdressing salon and have had a 17yr old junior "on trial" for the last 8 weeks. We tend to trial for 3 months before offering a contract or not. The 17rd old in question was not really impressing,upset some of our clients and so i was about to tell her things are'nt working out and that maybe she should move on. She had now declared that she is pregnant. Im guessing this has changed things with regard to dismissal. What can or can't i do? Ideally, i would still like her to leave, the worst case scenarios is she stays, and ends up claiming maternity pay....Help!