Maternity discrimination ?

[sunflower1230]

Hi All, I was offered a job last week and was over the moon. The employer who called me text me the next day asking what my notice period was. I replied explaining i thought it was 6m but I am on maternity until January 2026. She didn’t reply for two days and sent an email saying she was disappointed I didn’t mention it and they can not wait until January due to my maternity and therefor withdrawing the job offer. The email was a little snotty tbh. However I’ve been discriminated against before for maternity and to me this is discrimination. Should I not of been on maternity she wouldn’t of revoked the offer..

I have since replied stating they have discriminated against me and to rectify urgently and how upset and disappointed I was about the situation. I now know I do not want to work for them and they haven’t replied to this email. I have informed Acas.

but is this discrimination to anyone else plz?

Exactly my point, I was more than willing to start earlier but as soon as they knew I was on maternity still till Jan they removed it and put it in writing it was in regard to my maternity. Plain back and white proof

@sunflower1230 the employer gave you the reason that they could not have a vacancy. For a further six months…. That reason was a delay for taking up the post, by way I once advertised a post for a children’s support worker in a refuge working evenings and weekends. A potential applicant of maternity.

If you have replied that you are willing to start sooner within the usual pre employment checks, time frame you may have a case. If they have not responded.

But that is not clear in your post. So qualified lawyers here will have difficulty in responding. (IANAL)

I once advertised a post for a children’s and family supports worker post involved evenings and weekends, for school age children.

Potential applicant phoned to say she could only work day time as had family commitments.

there were no children of the target age at the refuge in the day as they were all placed in a school straight away.

She got the huff.

We are allowed to “discriminate” where there is necessities for a post, they would have to argue that it was necessary that the vacancy was filled ASAP.

It personally affronts me that you would sue the NHS, not impressed at all.

except for Pegg, Darlington etc…

what so I just let the nhs discriminate me ? Right. It’s also not the nhs as a whole is it, it’s one person. One manager

In my field 6 months is standard from junior associate upwards. Basically only admin staff would have less.

In public sector like NHS, Civil Service etc the process can take months. Son - civil service - process was 18 months on total from applicatio mto start date so totally understand why @sunflower1230 might get the process starting

Glad to see Pregnant then Screwed have your back on this. They should be able to point you to lawyers if the early conciliation doesn't work out which I suspect it may well.

The manager in question is an eminence of the NHS. I assume the manager had HR advice.

Rubbish. Max notice period in NHS is 3 months and it’s grade specific (agenda for change - may be longer for medics, but your use of “should of” makes me think probably not).

(ex-NHS HR)

You’ve got a slam dunk there.

they were very foolish to put that in writing.

shame there are so many dinosaurs on this thread. Let’s hope they are in management.

good luck OP.

Hell of a jump from 6 months to 2. Why didn’t you go back and confirm 2?

I did go back and confirm 2

I feel slam dunked by these lot, bloody joke!

im a very upfront and honest person, I’ve been previously discriminated so I am careful. The process in nhs recruitment likely takes 6 months anyway and didn’t see any harm in taking a job I would like with a proposed date, I would of also started earlier if they had a chat with me.. instead they put in black and white we are revoking the job offer due to your maternity leave. I would be mad to accept that

Have they replied to that? if not well that might help you.

The other problem you might have is they can not bind you to a maternity return date.

No in my response I explained my notice period and that I felt discriminated and asked for their grievance policy and any hr contacts I may need to rectify the situation urgently by today. There was more in the email to explain things but I’ve had no reply and have logged this with Acas for early conciliation

So was there a proposed start date in the job interview?

Ffs this is not discrimination, you applied for a job you can’t do until next year. It’s only June now!!!

they recruited because they need someone now, why on earth would they wait until Jan? If you had a 6m non-compete they would almost certainly have pulled back the offer too.

You are being ridiculous, and I bet the moment they heard your discrimination claims they thanked their lucky stars they passed on you. The world does not owe you anything, stop acting like it does.

Nope

Bore off 🤣

No, it was removed because you said you couldn't start for 6 months. I'm not sure had you gone back to them to say it was only 2 months would, necessarily, change their minds given your lack of knowledge about your current role.

And I can’t start for 6 months because I’m on maternity so it’s therefor maternity discrimination jesussssss

😆 I see what you did there, you took my point, then proved it 😉

They shouldn’t have done this but I have to say it’s a bit mad going for a job that you won’t be able to start until next year regardless of the reason and not making it clear. Then screaming discrimination when they aren’t happy about it. It’s just a bit disingenuous in my opinion.

Wasn’t it cute

I’m not sure why you’ve come on here wanting to confirm that this is discrimination … when you’re so adamant that you’re correct ( realise this has been pointed out several times already )
FWIW I think you’re wrong , and unreasonable to even think that they might wait 6 months 🤦‍♀️ , not to mention the logistics of who’s going to be paying you ( which dept ) for the remainder of mat leave

This is wild. You keep saying you would have started earlier, but you didn’t say that to them. You said your notice was 6m, then actually you are on maternity.

You could have avoided this by saying to them I’m currently on mat leave and given the timeframe you’d be happy to return, which is presumably a reasonable timeframe in the next 3 months or so, so you aren’t wasting the recruiters time