Thanks again for your replies. This is my second child and I work part time. As much as I wish I could we are not financially in a position for me to give up work so I really do have to fight for my job. It does sound positive in that I should be offered a new position being pregnant but it sounds like my best hope rests on actually being on maternity leave. I am in a Union at work so will try and have a chat with them on Monday. Its just so difficult when due to the timescales given at work and having to give 4 weeks notice of going on maternity leave I've got to make a decision within the week!

Thanks for your reply. Its such a difficult situation. The new jobs will be almost exactly what I currently do (customer advisor) so I fit the job description perfectly. I guess the catch is that by the time I return from maternity leave the positions will already be filled. They are looking to make the redundancies in April this year and my maternity leave (if started early) would be in March, if they did not then offer me one of the new posts I would not have a job to return to so wouldn't they then at that point (as my job would have been deleted) have to make me redundant? I'm very confused as to the best way to go with this, think overall I may just have to take my chances with everyone else and hope that they don't dismiss me knowing that I'm pregnant and this is an easy way to get out of having to pay maternity pay.

Hi, I'm new to this site and in need of some advice. I work for a local council and we have been given letters stating that our jobs are at risk of redundancy. They are deleting all our current posts and creating new ones. There will be 31 redundancies. I am currently pregnant and am wondering if I should start my maternity leave early to try and avoid the risk of redundancy. There are lots of suitable posts I could be offered and believe that once on maternity leave I should be offered a suitable alternative position before any of my other colleagues are offered the positions. If this is the case then it is worth me starting my leave early to guarantee being offered one of the new positions and not risk losing my job. If this is the case I'm trying to find the relevant legislation that confirms this so I can take it to my employers so they are aware that they have to do this. They have also said that we all have to interview for the positions, if I was on maternity leave would I still have to go through this process? Can anyone be of any help - any please if I've got this wrong and being on maternity leave will not be of any benefit to me please let me know! Thanks in advance. Kim