Nicely sidelined while on Mat leave - what should I do?

[AuntieBacterial]

...the answer is probably do nothing, but here goes anyway.

Background to this is that my boss is a French chauvenist arse (no really he is, that's not an overreaction on my part honestly!). I had some problems with him in the run up to my last maternity leave and what had previously been a mutually respectful relationship became very difficult indeed and led to me raising a grievance because the fall-out from not doing so was much greater than the fall-out from doing so. He's not the sort to take complaints about him in his stride.

Anyway, the upshot of all that was that on my last day at work before maternity leave my boss sent out a general email announcing a director would be recruited dealing with almost precisely my work area and solicited applications for the post. To me it looked like a duplicate of my job with a few bells and whistles added to justify the upgrade to director. I was extremely peed off at the timing, not a lot I could do on my last day - plus an email forwarded from a colleague earlier in the day (from my boss) showed my boss thought my ML had already started and in his words I was "gone", so it seemed even more sneaky of him to announce an opportunity I was clearly qualified to apply for at this time. Putting 2 and 2 together, my boss timed the announcement to stop me applying as they do not keep employees on ML updated on positions that arise.

I however was mightily peed off and sent an email to HR raising my concern about the timing of the announcement (no reply) and the very last email I sent before switching off my computer for a year's leave was a response to my boss saying I would like to apply for the position, please could he post me details as it was my last day and I wouldn't be on email. I didn't hear anything more and didn't have any contact with anyone other than HR during my mat leave. Each time I had contact with HR I asked what was happening with the position and was told it was on hold.

On my return to work I was again told the position was on hold.

So I was quite surprised today to see an annoucement that someone had been recruited to fill the position and the recruitment process had been proceeding throughout my maternity leave!

I really would like to make the point that nobody came back to me or bothered to keep me updated about a position I said I would like to apply for while on maternity leave. I feel like my maternity leave was used to avoid my employer having to consider an application from me.

Have I been treated unfairly? What do you think and what would you do next?

[pommedeterre]

Kick up a stink with HR and your boss. meetings with both, tell them you plan to take legal advice and raise grievances against the company. Print off all correspondance, write done a timeline like you have here, show it to them explaining why you feel unfairly treated.
If they don't settle the situation to your satisfaction do take some legal advice and proceed according to that.
The fact that noone got back to you and blatantly lied to you about things is what gets me. Especially from the HR department!

[AuntieBacterial]

Thanks pomme.

As usual most of the discussions (apart from my email saying I would like to apply for the position) were verbal.