Pregnant and Asked to Resign: How Should I Handle This Job Crisis?

Hello friends. I am working in a reputed company and have completed 8 years of service. Now, I am six months pregnant. My HR is informing me that my performance is poor and the role has been closed, asking me to resign. This job is my only source of income, and my husband's income is not enough to support our family. I am very upset and don't know what to do. Kindly suggest a solution.

Have you officially informed the company about your condition? Section 12 of the Maternity Benefit Act is relevant in this condition.

Extract:

12. Dismissal during absence or pregnancy. -- (1) Where a woman absents herself from work in accordance with the provisions of this Act, it shall be unlawful for her employer to discharge or dismiss her during or on account of such absence or to give notice of discharge or dismissal on such a day that the notice will expire during such absence, or to vary to her disadvantage any of the conditions of her service.

Have you been warned earlier about poor performance? Officially inform the company about your medical condition. Seek legal advice. The law is on your side. Do not worry, but you will have to boldly take up the matter with your company and the labor officer of the area if the company persists with their plan of termination.

Thank you, sir. However, I have not been informed about my poor performance before. Until last year, I received an appraisal. During my appraisal, they mentioned that I need to improve my performance. That's it. Additionally, I received many appreciations two to three years ago. I have been working sincerely for the organization from 2009 till date.

After eight years, the company is now informing me that my performance is very low, my position has been closed, and this is the stance the company is taking. They have suggested that I should check the ML Act, but I am not familiar with that act. I have requested the company to provide me with a termination letter, but they have refused. Therefore, I have decided to resign from my job. They have agreed to provide me with one month's salary as the best they can do for me.

Dear, you should have informed the company about your pregnancy through some written proof like email. If you haven't done it yet, then do it. Once a company is informed about an employee's pregnancy, they can't ask the employee to leave citing reasons like poor performance or any other excuses. In this case, the law will be in your favor.

But if they issue a warning letter or notice of termination before being informed about the pregnancy, it might be in their favor as most appointment letters contain a standard clause stating, "both sides may terminate the employment by giving 1/2/3 months' notice or salary in lieu, without citing any reason."

Act accordingly. Simply write a letter to them informing about your pregnancy and request for a leave of 6 weeks prior to delivery and 6 weeks after delivery. Also, please attach the medical reports along with the email. This should be done only if they haven't sent any emails to you regarding termination or resignation.

I hope this information will be helpful to you.

Thank you, Mr. Sujan. Based on your suggestion, I have officially informed them today about my pregnancy and requested maternity leave. Actually, on Friday, they orally informed me, but I am yet to receive any kind of email or letter from them.

I have informed the company about my pregnancy today. I am afraid they may issue a warning letter regarding my performance after receiving my email. Please advise on how I should handle this situation.

"I am afraid if they give any warning letter on my performance after seeing my mail."

You are protected by law to a great extent. It is not all that simple to take action against a lady employee who has asked for maternity leave and intimated her medical condition to the employer.

Thank you Mr. Nathrao & Sujan Roy for the suggestion and support. Just wanted to update you on my situation. Yesterday, I was waiting for HR to call me for a discussion. Later in the evening, my manager informed me that HR would get back to me in a couple of days. I am uncertain about what will happen next, so I will wait for their decision. In the meantime, my blood pressure and sugar levels have spiked, and I am taking medication while still coming to the office regularly. However, I have not been assigned any tasks and have been idle all day.

"Meanwhile, my blood pressure and sugar levels were shooting up, and I was taking medicines and coming to the office regularly.

Take care of your health. Do not worry, as the law is on your side. If you have to go legal, collect papers and emails, and be ready for legal remedies. Inform the local Labour officer about the company's actions."

Dear, you don't need to be worried. Just be bold and don't take tension. You have to teach them a good lesson so that they can never do this to any pregnant lady. The law is on your side.

HR has yet to discuss with me. Their silence is making me worry. I have not been given any job. I am coming to the office regularly and sitting the whole day idle. I came to know from others that my work was given to other staff purposely, and those people were asking for the knowledge transfer of tasks which I've handled. I don't know what to do. This makes me feel stressed.

Company Transition Concerns

Also, my company is transitioning this year from being a private limited company to a public limited one. Will they hold my salary? Are they looking for strong reasons to let me go? Being a public limited company, do they have more rights to terminate employees? Kindly help me with your suggestions, Mr. Nathrao & Sujan.

Silence as a Strategy

Silence is a strategy adopted to unnerve you. Continue going to the office, record your presence in the attendance register/system, etc. If some other staff asks for knowledge transfer, ask them to get this request endorsed in writing from HR so that you have a record and can respond while keeping the matter documented. They are also aware of the law. Whether it is a public limited company or not, the law remains the same. You are well protected by the law to a great extent. That is why they ask you to resign and do not want to terminate your employment. Remain polite and calm in the office and do not react in a manner that they can manipulate things in other directions.

Don't worry, nobody has the right to remove a pregnant woman as per the act. The company's employees with more than the minimum working days, as per the law employment in the twelve months immediately preceding the expected date of delivery, are entitled to twelve weeks of maternity leave.

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No need to worry. Keep going to the office and ensure your attendance is registered there every day. Try to collect proof of your daily attendance and keep it with you. If possible, send an email daily from your Outlook (official email ID) to your personal ID, showing that you operated your computer system on that day, indicating your presence. This may be necessary if you suspect that your employer might remove the attendance proof from the office to create issues against you.

The rest you can follow as suggested by Mr. Nathrao. In the meantime, you may write to HR asking why your work is being transferred to another person and what your current job responsibilities are. Include this information in the same email through which you earlier informed about seeking maternity leave by forwarding it.

Regards

In this competitive market, we have to make our presence felt by some means or another. Just try to attend the office as much as possible. Mark your attendance and don't panic if you are not being assigned any work. Just pass your time silently, hold your nerves, and keep yourself busy on your personal laptop, if possible.

As rightly quoted by Mr. Nathrao, "Silence is a strategy adopted to unnerve you. If some other staff asks for knowledge transfer, ask them to get this request endorsed in writing from HR." Rest assured, you can't be fired or terminated when you have already put in around 8 years of service in the company. This is the reason the company HR might be asking you to resign verbally only. The law of the land is in your favor. Just hold your nerves and try to compose yourself without reacting to any adverse situation.

Regards,
Optimus Consultants
[Phone Number Removed For Privacy Reasons]

I am so grateful to you all for your valuable suggestions. Still, my HR is maintaining silence. Can I go and talk to my department chief officer on this? But I know very well without her knowledge, HR and my immediate boss would not have spoken to me. Kindly give your views.

In my company, the pathetic part is that my department chief and HR VP are women staff. But still, they are not supporting women like me.

Dear, you may talk to the Chief. However, there is no point in talking with her as she might already know the facts, and without her knowledge, how can HR do all these things with you?

As I suggested earlier, write an email to HR and the Chief asking about what is happening with you, why your job is being transferred to another person, and what your current role is. This email will serve as proof of harassment by them, which will help you strengthen your case.

Please note, this matter should be written keeping the previous email (in which you requested information about maternity leave) as a trail so that you can have linkages of all communications with them in a single email.

And don't forget to keep records of all the communications with them. You may take a printout or forward the emails to your personal email ID.

Regards.

Thank you, sir. I have emailed as you said in the trail mail which I sent. I have also messaged my chief to give me an appointment to discuss. She said tomorrow. I am going to request her whether she can extend my services until my maternity. Having completed 8 years of sincere service in the organization, this is the only request I am making. I do not know what she might tell me tomorrow. I truly do not have any intention to fight with such a big company. My only concern is that I have completed these many years, but they didn't even consider it when letting me go in this situation. That's the only thing that is hurting me a lot.

Sir, HR spoke to me, and they said they would provide my maternity benefits and medical insurance. After that, they asked me to resign from the company, i.e., when I rejoin after maternity. Actually, my delivery would be around the middle of April. So, they told me they would provide the salary till May, which includes my maternity leave. For this, I need to provide a doctor's certificate along with the maternity leave form. This seems like a fair deal to me. My only concern is that I will not be able to continue in this office after May. However, I have convinced myself somewhat that I have maternity benefits and medical insurance to manage the expenses.

If I had not fought for it, I definitely might have missed out on all these benefits. Thanks to the CIte HR site and the kind-hearted persons who have given their suggestions and encouraged me to face this issue boldly.