if you are employed by an employment agency, are you entitled to Statutory Maternity Pay?

Question

I am employed by an agency and on a longterm temporary contract placement.

Answer 1

If you've worked for your employer before your partner's pregnancy began you probably have the right to paid paternity leave.

Answer 2

Think you have to work for a period of 2 yrs before SMP paid if you not entitled can claim Maternity Allowance or Income Support(if your a Lone Parent), if you've got a partner working claim Working & Child Tax Credits.

Can also claim Working Tax at same time as Child Tax if you do get SMP, as technically still employed.

Answer 3

You should be entitled to SMP if the Agency deducts PAYE and NI from your pay. As long as you are paying NI through them, you are classed as "Employed" rather than "Self Employed". Some Agencies will try to get out of paying you SMP by claiming that you are "Self Employed" however the law will state otherwise. To be "Self Employed" you will have to be a "registered" company with Inland Revenue. If you don't have a company name, Inland Revenue will just your name as the business name. You will have to "Invoice" the Agent for any work that you do. Timesheets are NOT invoices and prove "Employment". Also, to be Self Employed you would have to pay your own NI at a different rate. There is also a thing called accumulative employment which basically says that if you work regular for any company and / or Agent, you are in permanent employment and entitled to sick pay, holiday pay SMP and redundancy. Agencies attempt to get around this law by claiming each placement is a "new" job as you are given a new contract of employment each time. However, the Employment Acts state that regardless of the number of new contracts, if there is no break or only a short break between each contract, each contract is continuous and therefore you are in continuous employment (Permanent). To be honest, I can't see why Agencies attempt to avoid their legal responsibilities as it doesn't cost them anything. The Agency will pay you the SMP and then claim it back from the Department of Health as it is linked to NI. They will get every penny back. Good employers top up the SMP to bring to your basic wage, bad employers only give the flat SMP and bas***ds try to get out of paying anything, even though it won't cost them anything. Speak to your Agent and if they say that you cannot claim, tell them that you will go to the DSS and make a claim there. See if their attitude changes. They will know that should you go to the DSS, questions will be asked as to why they have denied you your rights. One other option is to give up the job but only after they have refused SMP in writing, and take them to an Industrial Tribunal for "Constructive Dismissal" and "Sex Discrimination". Every woman that has taken an employer to a Tribunal, for "Sex Discrimination" and / or "Constuctive Dismissal" has won her case. Every Tribunal has declared that it is "Sex Discrimination" if an Employer sacks, intimidates, harasses an employee because she is pregnant. As for "Constructive Dismissal", through a refusal to pay SMP the employer is putting both you and your baby's health at risk as you would not be able to afford to take time off work. Therefore it is a form of harassment as the employer is forcing you to work when for medical reasons you shouldn't. The threat of losing your job is intimidation and with these facts, you have to leave the job of your own accord, for medical reasons and therefore the employer claims that you resigned of your own free will but Tribunals will agree that you were forced into resignation thus you were sacked. It is illegal to sack an employee whilst sick. My advice is to ask the Agent for a copy of their policy around "Maternity Leave" and "Maternity Payments". If they refuse and / or tell you that you can't have Maternity Pay and / or Maternity Leave, go to the nearest JobCentre to your home and speak to an Advisor. Tell the Advisor that you want to take a case to an Industrial Tribunal. You might find the Advisor is an overpaid lazy git that claims that you don't have a case. This is only a fob off because he / she is too lazy to even consider filling in the forms. Be persistant. Tell them that you were told by a friend's husband, who is a "Senior Partner" in a Law company, that you do have a case and if he/she doesn't advise you correctly and make the application, you will raise a complaint with your MP and the Department of Skills and Employment. Stick to your guns, don't take no sh*t from anybody and get what you are rightfully entitled to. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Usually not with a contract, you are not actually an employee and are not entitled to benefits.

Answer 5

information like that should be in your employment contract, give it a read.
if it's not there then sorry i can't help ya.

Answer 6

you are classed as a "worker" not an "Employee" legally this means you are entitled to other things. check here.

http://direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Workingparents/DG_10029285