Unfair practice? (Long)

[dontupsettheapplecart]

Hi. I am an aibu regular who has namechanged..., I originally posted this in aibu but thought here might be more appropriate.

Some time ago I was awarded a secondment to a higher paid position in my place of work.
We had a belt tightening exercise where all secondments were ended and a lot of people were made redundant. I then got pregnant and had a year out.

Prior to returning I was invited to an interview for another promotion, this time with a permanent contract.

I attended the interview with one other candidate and was told that I had done very well and had I been available for a full time postition I would have been successful but as I can only offer three days per week I wasn't successful.
There was a lot of politics around this and I just went with it as had other things going on.

I returned and successfully interviewed for a sideways move which has no extra pay attached.

In my mat leave absence our financial situation changed.
Another colleague (X) was given a secondment without having to interview. She is a good work friend and I had no beef regarding this as it happened whilst I was on Mat leave.
Her secondment ends at the end of the month.
Other colleagues had interviewed for promotion and secured permanent contracts.

X told me in strict confidence that senior management are desperate to keep her on so the next promotion that comes up is hers (without interview)

Despite feeling peed off about this I (sort of) shrugged it off but today I overheard a convo where the senior told X that she is keeping an eye on the budget and it?s looking very promising for X?
They obviously thought that they were alone in the room as i sit around the corner in a very large open plan office.
Am I being unreasonable in that It makes my blood slightly boil? It ?seems? really unfair and unjust to me & actually goes against our policy of equal ops employment rights etc etc

But its kind of how this company operates historically (not that I am excusing it)

I don?t want to cause awkwardness (especially now I have a shiny new job which is not a promotion but is triple my previous workload) It would be ?not worth it? if there wasn?t a huge payrise attached and there should be some sort of queuing system, maybe I lost my place when I chose to procreate? But?I did go through the full interview process in September and I?m pretty sure that dear colleague didn?t go through a similar process.

I am always saying hey-ho and pushing things to one side because when I do take action there is usually a fall-out of sorts? but i feel that I would be raising a valid point: if there is a vacancy it should be advertised.

I was thinking about raising it in supervision I need to work out what I want to achieve from the exchange.

Do you think that I have a point? And if so how should I address it?

Thanks

[Isatdownandwept]

1. can a firm give favouritism to someone, promote them into roles without advertising them and generally look after them better than others? Yes, unless they are bound to follow certain codes and are breaking them (would apply to some public sector roles and heavily unionised orgs). It's not very good practice to do this, but its not illegal.
   B) can a firm advertise for a full time role and turn you down simply because you can only work 3 days a week? Yes
   C) can a firm favour someone over you because you are a mother and they aren't? No.
   
   Problem is you do not seem to have any evidence, based on what you have said, that implies you have been discriminated against, only that (a) and (b) both seem to apply.

[flowery]

The only issue here seems to be them deciding who they want for a particular promotion and not advertising it.

It's not great practice, and it may be against an internal procedure, but inevitably with internal promotions, managers will have a pretty good idea who they want beforehand. They may even feel it unfair to put other people through a sham process when a decision has already been made.

Sounds as though they do think highly of you if they would have appointed you previously had you been able/willing to meet the requirements of the role.

I don't think there's any harm you saying that you are keen to be considered again, and will any future vacancies be advertised?