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?

I’d rather give advice assuming the OP has some kind of idea of how things work in her job in her part of the country than assume that all other posters know better than her although she hasn’t said her profession or region.

OP it’s not 6months, it’s 7months. You said you’re on maternity till Jan, that’s 7 months. There could be all manner of reasons why someone might say they can’t start for 7 months. They may be travelling, for instance.

You need to accept that 7 months is too long for a team to wait for a new recruit. The reason that you’d be that long is not relevant. Granted they may have messed up the way they replied to you, but ultimately they said that they couldn’t wait 7 months. Which is completely reasonable.

What job do you do that you thought your notice period would be 6 months? Are you board level?
in my experience, there is the odd occasion where it can take a long time to get someone onboard in the NHS, but generally it doesn’t.

The comments here from fellow women are wild tbh!
Yes of course it’s bloody inconvenient to interview a great candidate and then discover she’s pregnant and can’t start for months, but to withdraw a job offer to the right person because she is pregnant (and therefore can’t start for months) is plain and simple discrimination. It’s the law.
What good businesses do is they then have to find cover for the new employee. It happens. I’ve seen it (I was the cover).
There is no onus on a pregnant woman to say she’s pregnant or reference it at all during or after the interview process (until discussion on start date), and a business that takes decisions based on that is breaking the law.
I am genuinely gob smacked at how badly informed a lot of ppl are.
The OP is absolutely entitled to apply for jobs, pregnant or not. And to accept offers which might then require an employer to find cover for the months she will be on mat leave.
Good luck OP. Hopefully at the very least the manager concerned gets educated.

Well this is interesting

The longest routine notice period I’m aware of in the nhs is 3 months not 6 and that’s for senior roles and consultant medics. Chief execs etc may be six months but I don’t think that’s the case here as yours is 2.

And then - being on a further 6 months maternity leave is not compulsory. You could return earlier giving 8 weeks notice. So you could take up this job in August. You just don’t want to. And they don’t want to wait until January which is understandable.

Also nhs recruitment doesn’t take 6 months. 6 weeks yes. Are you sure you want to make a big thing of this? You’ve not been transparent with them at all and they have right to feel aggrieved. Almost makes me wonder if you applied for the job looking for a payout? You went to acas etc very quickly.

She’s not pregnant.

I don’t think she’s pregnant, I’m guessing her baby is a few months old and she’s taking either 9 or 12 months mat leave .

She didn’t say she was pregnant. She’s on mat leave from her current job. As a pp pointed out, an employee needs to give 28 days’ notice to the employer of the date they wish to start SMP. The OP clearly did that for her current (not potential) employer so they have no obligation to agree that she’s off for the next 7 months

Oh yes and looking for a job because of the cuts is bollocks too. As you are on maternity leave you are as protected as possible from the cuts precisely because of the risk of discrimination so I don’t buy that for a minute. Given your history you were chancing your arm weren’t you? Agree a quick settlement and that will boost your mat pay!

Still discrimination though. You cannot legally withdraw a job offer because you find out someone is on maternity leave and can’t start for some months.
As the OP has said, they should have explored with her when she could start, and then covered her until then.

It’s no different to if OP was pregnant and had maternity leave coming up, in a case like that someone may be in the role for a very short time before taking maternity leave, but it would still be discrimination to not give them a job because of their pregnancy

Honestly to be fair, they’re interviewing cause they need someone now not in 6 months so I can see why they told you no. Madness not to check first though on their part.
On the other hand it would now be an awful atmosphere to start a new role in and chances of you passing probation might be significantly lessened .

Sorry OP but YABU and I’m not surprised they’re annoyed.

If they are hoping to get someone to start within 3-6 months and you announce at the last minute it’s going to be 7months… that might no longer meet their staffing needs, they obviously need someone sooner.

If it’s a job you really want, could you not shorten your maternity leave?

1. It’s not discrimination, they rightfully wouldn’t wait until January for anyone

2. You’re really going to embarrass yourself trying to take it further

and

3. You’ve made them see what a very lucky escape they’ve had with you, and word like that spreads fast. Good luck job hunting after this little episode.

Not the point - it is discrimination to offer a job to someone on maternity leave and then withdraw it. Sorry - you’re incorrect as are many of the other posters.
The vitriol is pretty crazy. And yes, I am a lawyer and know what I’m on about. I get it might seem unfair to employers, especially small ones but it’s the law and there to protect women who are perfectly entitled to look for work at any life stage.

@HolidayhappinessIt’s only discrimination if the offer was withdrawn because of the maternity leave. If they can show they’d have made the same decision for someone not on maternity leave but unavailable for the same length of time, like a long notice period, then it’s not unlawful. They’re not required to hold a job open indefinitely unless they’ve done that for others before. Poor communication doesn’t equal discrimination, even if it feels unfair.

But they have blatantly said so if I remember correctly. I think that’s what the OP said.

I think you are taking the piss and making a mockery of women who are discriminated against due to being pregnant or on maternity leave.

I feel sorry for employers who put a job out, think they have the perfect candidate and then find out they are not available for 6 months. I think you were unreasonable interviewing in the first place with so much maternity leave left and not mentioning that. I know legally you could, but morally I disagree.

It feels from your posts you are almost gleefull that they have "screwed up" by mentioning your maternity and are now pouncing on that, rubbing your hands together at the thought of a lovely, fat pay out.

I also work for the nhs and need higher clearance than normal dbs which often delays things, but even then, I have started new positions using the normal 3 months notice So I do think your 6 months is a long time for the job to wait, no matter how normal you insist it is.

Some barrack-room lawyers on here 😂

Imagine a man applies for a job that has no start date included in the vacancy notice. He is offered the job. A start date is given. He replies “I will be performing umrah that week. Can I start later?”

A) HR replies “We are withdrawing your job offer because you are a Muslim.”

B) HR replies “We hold our annual conference that week and we need the new employee to staff the event. Is there any flexibility on your end, or anything we can do on ours?”

Subtracting the internalised misogyny, can we see that B is OK and A isn’t?
Can we see that while the HR person could have said the equivalent of B to OP, they have in fact chosen to say A?

You want a refund on your law degree mate. As long as they can say and show they would not have waited 7 months for another candidate, for any other reason, it’s not discrimination.

They can absolutely withdraw an offer while on maternity, they can’t withdraw an offer BECAUSE of maternity, there’s a difference. Again- you want a refund on your degree.

6 months is a very long time for them to wait. I think you'd have a hard time proving it's because you're on maternity.

Strange it never came up before this point.

I have it in writing in an email, not too hard to prove really 🤔

The email says they can’t wait until January- that’s not discrimination.

Thank you!!

i have previously said that if they came to me speak to me I could of 1- clarified my notice and 2- made a compromise and ended mat leave early to start the role and got off on the right foot

instead they emailed stating we are withdrawing due to your maternity leave ending in January

could of been avoided :/

”she wrote it in black and white ‘we are withdrawing your job offer due to maternity leave”