Employer trying to force resignation - England
Location: England
I currently work with my husband for my Father in Law. On Sunday, my husband and his father have had a massive falling out, not related to work, and my FIL is demanding that we both hand in our resignations at the end of the month. My FIL told my husband on Sunday to not come to work on the Monday, and he will pay our accrued holiday pay but he wants us to hand in our notice.
None of this has been relayed directly to me by my boss/FIL. He has put none of this in writing and just keeps threatening my husband. Obviously, going forward I am going to contact my FIL directly regarding this issue. I think he is avoiding putting anything down in writing because I am fairly certain he knows he cannot demand or force a resignation. I am under the impression that if he wants me gone, he should take steps to fire me?
To make things more complicated, I am 6 months pregnant. My FIL has known this since May and he has also received my MAT B1 at the end of July. In July I advised him of my maternity leave dates, which he did not acknowledge except to say "Can you please be flexible with this?"
I have worked in the same place since Sept 2022. 6 months after I started working, my initial employers sold their store to my FIL. I met my husband there. My FIL manages several small franchised stores. In Sept 2025, my FIL temporarily lost ownership of his businesses pending investigation into financial discrepancies at all his other branches BAR the store I and my husband work at. During this time, a temporary owner was installed and I was paid through them.
In April 2026, my FIL got access back to his stores, and thus became my employer again. He seems to think because he has not been my employer for 26 weeks then he does not have anything to pay for my Statutory Maternity Pay if I did resign as he is wanting. To be honest, I am very close to just resigning like he wants if this will mean he will leave me and my family alone in the future. However, I am very wary of potentially screwing up my baby's future with this move. I know I can potentially claim Maternity Allowance, since I will have "recently stopped working".
I guess my question is, should I allow my FIL to force me to resign vs. making him fire me?