Is this discrimination

[cluedo41]

Several issues since 2020 - but have worked for the business since 2010 with no issues pre pregnancy

• 2020 announced first pregnancy, almost immediately demoted - company blamed covid

• 2021 while on maternity leave I get informed that I have a new manager - one of my peers from the role I got demoted from is now managing me and my team - I was not informed of the job opportunity at all

• 2022 - have returned to work and now pregnant again; find I'm being alienated by management eg not been involved in small things like a gift for a colleagues baby etc - when I suggest a gift I'm told they've all already sent one but I wasn't included?!

• 2023 - due to go on maternity leave imminently, feeling extremely stressed with work just due to general bad feeling and negativity around my pregnancy and my part time hours - negative comments eg - oh you missed that important meeting that fell on your day off - if I'd been asked to attend I would have arranger to!!

I know I should have addressed all issues at the time but I've been either pregnant or with a young child and tbh felt I was just being sensitive at times but it's really just too much to bear now as it absolutely feels that when I am pregnant I am treated differently.

Is it too late to raise a grievance? Really I just want an apology and some reassurance that I'll be able to enjoy my Mat leave stress free and safe in the knowledge they won't make my return difficult and I'll be informed of promotion opportunities while I'm off.

You have to raise a grievance within 3 months from when the last discrimination act takes place.

Really sorry you are going through this but there are some organisations that help with advice like pregnant then screwed and maternity action.

Some no win no fee Solicitors give initial advice and help with settlements and tribunal. I have used them myself for the similar thing and definitely recommend.

Are you in a union?

The demotion was it justified and done fairly

if someone is on mat leave there off we wouldn’t inform about changes and vacancies

gift thing need more info

with the meetings there should be process to update u
make it known you can be flexible and come in .be careful with that if you show you can be very flexible if they try to change your hours you haven’t a leg to stand on

A company legally has to inform women on maternity leave if their are vacancies/promotion opportunities they could apply for.

A company legally has to inform women on maternity leave if their are vacancies/promotion opportunities they could apply for.

Everyone in my work hears the same way, via the website. If that's how they put out vacancies, wouldn't it be legal?

Yes I agree. In a company of thousands it's not as if you will be told personally about every role that is posted? Try to look at your situation objectively and not emotionally. Where is your hard evidence that you have been discriminated against?

Lol. You’re a problem. Lol

You cannot possibly be so stupid that you think a woman shouldn’t have two children with a three year age gap without quitting their job. She worked there for ten years before she got pregnant! Some people really do have an IQ that matches their shoe size

This! (is a fucking ridiculous thing to say)!

Are there genuinely people on a site like Mumsnet with views like the above? So shocked.

I think it's probably too late to do anything. It just feels so unfair. It's just wearing me down!

I'd try ringing the Pregnant Then Screwed helpline. This is literally what they deal with, discrimination for women and mothers. I'm sure they'll be able to help you!

I don’t think you can expect to be personally informed of vacancies. Also meetings on your day off, you’d feel harassed if you were invited to attend, as you’d feel pressured to attend.

The: 3 months from last act; you might be able to argue that this is an ongoing act. I second calling pregnant then screwed- they are well qualified and can advise on specifics.

Rightly or wrongly, there's no coming back from raising a discrimination claim though so do consider this objectively if you're plant to return to work.

I'm disappointed in some responses. Women really are their own worst enemy sometimes.

If the role was advertised internally your employer should have informed you about it, or set out from the start of your may leave how you would be able to access internal jobs (ours is covered in maternity policy)

By law an employer has to tell a women who os on maternity leave about job oppertunities

www.acas.org.uk/managing-your-employees-maternity-leave-and-pay/planning-maternity-leave

Planning maternity leave
Before maternity leave starts, you should agree with your employee the best way to keep in touch about important changes or news at work.

This includes arranging how you'll keep in touch. Try and agree a way of keeping in touch that's comfortable for your employee, for example you can ask them if they prefer email to phone calls.

By law you must tell them about:

promotion or other job opportunities
redundancies
any reorganisation that could affect their job

In terms of how you feel about all this, you know the employer and your colleagues. If you trust your instincts you may be right. But as someone else has said, knowing and evidencing are not the same thing. The examples you have given can all be explained differently. You were denied becuse of the circumstances around the pandemic. The pandemic affected employment for lots of people, so it was just your bad fortune. The promotion was applicable to people at your former level, so you didn't meet the criteria for applying. Got agent now in the office all the time so people sometimes forget that you haven't been included in something. And meetings continue when you aren't in because you aren't full time and they don't arrange the diary around just your working hours.

I'm not saying this things are true. But they are equally viable explanations. Can you evidence your version over that version?

If I am honest, if all you want is an apology, forget it. That won't happen. Maybe what it is time to consider is whether this job / employer is your long term future, and start thinking about whether you'd be better looking to where you want to be in a year or two. Which may not be where you are now.

I'm not sure you could feasibly do anything about any of the above by raising a grievance, unfortunately. The first one was quite a while ago, and during a pandemic, so it would be difficult to prove; the second one isn't against the rules if there is a jobs board because you're expected to check it for yourself; the third one sounds like non work related stuff, which isn't really within your company's HR remit; and the fourth one is debatable depending upon what they're saying, just saying to you you've missed a meeting because it fell on one of your days off isn't a negative comment, it's a statement of a fact.

That's not to say you're wrong about it all, just that I don't think any of the incidences you've given as examples above would really count as something to raise a grievance about. And going in full throttle may not be the best method anyway, you said yourself you'd have been better feeling with it at the time, so why don't you start by doing that? When they say you missed a meeting on your day off, straight away ask them to either reschedule it to another day in future, or to let you know and you'll come in that day instead. You can't fix the problem by not saying anything at the time, and you haven't exhausted all avenues until you start to do that.

If your company is a large one, don’t they have an online job vacancy board? Ours does, which if we want to see what vacancies there are, we have to take responsibility to go on there and see for ourselves. As for the meetings on your day off, you need to make your manager aware that you wish to be told of upcoming meetings, so that you can decide whether you can accommodate them on your days off. Don’t they update you anyway with the outcome of the meetings when you’re back in the office?