Mat leave discrimination?

[JamesWonder]

Hi,

Would appreciate some advice please.

I’m on mat leave and recently found out that my employer had hired someone external into a job I would have applied for had I been at work/known about it - it would be a promotion for me.

I didn’t see the job advertised and they didn’t tell me it was open. Before I went on mat leave I made it clear to my manager I’d be open to cutting my leave short if any opportunities came up.

I read that the onus is on the employer to inform employees of promotion opps when they’re on maternity leave.

Anyone wiser and more qualified than me able to tell me if they’ve done something wrong, or if I’m just overreacting and it’s tough that I missed the chance?

TIA

Of course there is. I'm glad you're not my employer!

The acas link is that clear either.

Your company shouldn’t leave you at a disadvantage.

Which can be argued in all sorts of ways.

If the job along with all their other jobs are advertised on LinkedIn, you could argue you aren’t at a disadvantage. You have the same opportunity that others have and you had before.

Absolutely incorrect.

As pp have said they should have informed you in this situation.

How are jobs normally advertised at your company?

If the job was advertised in the usual way and you didn't check, you weren't at a disadvantage. You had the same opportunity as someone not on mat leave regularly checking new job opportunities.

If there was no way for you to find out about the job or apply, then that's discrimination.

Acas link very clear - employer should have informed op.

Advertising on LI is not activeky informing op, that's assuming op would check what is primarily a work networking tool whilst on maternity leave. So that's the disadvantage.

That is what i thought! But posters here seem to think spoon feeding is the way to go!
What outcome would acas expect? Financial recompense? The interviews to be held again and job given to op?

I don’t understand this. At any given time there are hundreds of roles open at my company. A lot of these would be a promotion to me, that I could feasibly interview for but are in different teams/specialisms/require new qualifications.

My employer is supposed to contact me multiple times a day about roles that are as different as a move from sales to HR? That would be overwhelming… and surely unnecessary (as they don’t do it…).

But that isn’t what’s happened here. This job would be the next natural career step for me, which my manager knows. It’s not a move to a different team or function.

It’s also the kind of role that may not open up again for years to come. And there are never hundreds of roles open at a time, not even dozens.

Yes in some cases if an binding offer has not already been made the process can start again as part of a grievance outcome for e.g.

Or financial remedy via ET

Or a settlement to avoid an ET.

Ultimately what happens is the woman just does nothing because they don't want to rock the boat.

Spoonfeeding is not the same as a quick email or call to draw the womans attention to the vacancy.

You are correct, while on maternity leave your employer should be sending you ALL job opportunities within the business. I would get weekly emails (huge multinational bank so lots of jobs coming up).

That seems ridiculous. So, for example a consultant neurosurgeon on mat leave would have to get notified of an entry level opportunity in food services (nice way of saying delivering the slop that goes on trays these days), and conversely the person happily doing entry level food services must be advised of their potential to apply for a consultant neurosurgical position. The neuro must be advised of their opportunity to apply for a finance position, for which a prerequisite is that they must be a qualified & certified accountant, yet they are not. What an absolute waste of time and resource all round.

Somewhere employing a neurosurgeon will likely have a lot of vacancies, so it would be unrealistic to expect separate notifications of every single vacancy.

In those cases there's usually an intranet type system that people can set up alert notifications. And typically they'd have documented somewhere that they advised the woman to regularly check <wherever> because it would be impractical to notify of every single one.

It's about what's reasonable and practical for the employer.

And it's maybe not too much of a stretch to think someone in a stressful role might want to take a lesser stressful role on their return. This is a common mistake employers make - "oh we didn't think shed be interested in a 'lower' role" - not up to the employer to decide that.

Well I suppose it'll give someone or several someones a job in hr, getting the list of everyone in the company who's on mat leave and making sure they're aware of every job opening!

I’m not asking for every single job opening. Just the one that my boss knows full well I’d want to apply for. It would be a five minute job to contact me about it.

If its a small company there won't be many to inform

If large it wouldn't be practical to inform individually (although could be argued individual managers would only have a small number to inform) so they'd have a system in place.

Yea it can be a bit time consuming for HR, making sure they aren't inadvertently discriminating against those pesky reproducers.

Op they did need to notify you yes. However what are you going to do about it, they will likely say it was an oversight and they feel you’re not suitable for the role, so didn’t miss out.

I understand you wish the experience of applying, but they knew you’d have wanted it and basically decided it was pointless putting you through an interview process when they felt you were not suitable for the position.

i know it’s hard, but you need to decide, sure they broke process, it’s now up to you , what do you wish to do about it.

But it’s not just about meeting the criteria. You aren’t entitled to the job. And you’re starting to write like you feel you are.

I think you should find out first before you start making official discrimination claims!

You need to talk to your manager to ascertain:

1. If the role was advertised (you don't seem sure and this is a key point)
2. Why they didn't contact you, given that you stated you WANTED to be contacted in the event that a suitable role came up during your absence (presumably you agreed between you what that contact mechanism would be before you went on leave? I've seen cases where things have languished in a forgotten email account... not unusual)
3. And, if you are still satisfied that you have been discriminated against then you need to ask your boss what they propose to do to remedy things - this doesn't mean giving you the job of course, it means potentially setting you on a development pathway once you return from absence, reviewing their processes, etc.

Based on what you've said here I don't think anyone can advise you better than your own boss and you seem fairly unclear on some of the key issues - if you are still unhappy with their explanation then consider approaching ACAS, but have all of your ducks in a row first.

this is wrong

so you’re saying the company is required to contact all those on mat leave with any and ALL vacancies within the company

i would love to see this law that requires employers to notify those on may leave of any and all job vacancies

I don’t feel entitled to anything at all, if someone’s more qualified than me of course they should get the job 🙄

But why would I not apply for a job I’ve already been doing? They’re happy to let me do it on a lower title and less pay.

I think the key is whether it was advertised or someone was approached and then offered the role.
Speak to Pregnant then screwed

Thank you, this is really helpful advice.

how do you know this?

OMG. So many clueless keyboard warriors wading in on matters they have no clue about.