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?

The email said they can't wait until January for you to start. What does that prove? They'd have said the same to anyone with a 6 month notice period surely.

Honestly things like this give pregnant women and new mums a stigma in the workplace.

wasn't in the OP and i think this has been added because she doesn't like the responses.

OP clearly said the email read 'we cannot wait for you to start'

Oh bollocks op. You’d no intention of cutting mat leave short. If you had you would discuss it at interview. And the 6 months thing is bollocks too. Why on earth would you assume your notice period was so long? It’s not remotely plausible. You either thought you’d get away with making them wait or you were always angling for a payment. I hope they say see you in court.

I presume you’ve seen the emails then lol.

they put in writing ‘we are withdrawing your job offer due to your maternity leave ending in January’

Does OP sound like a VSM?

This is spot on.

Yes the hiring manager was foolish in her response to you.
But your immediate jump to accusing them of discrimination and ACAS will make them think twice about whether you are a good fit.
So they may accept they were wrong to have said what they said, offer you something for injury to feelings etc and then insist they need someone earlier than 6 months. Either way you don't get the job.
I'd save my energy for securing my position in my current role personally

She’s not pregnant. She’s on mat leave.

Why on earth didn't you mention that instead of telling a half arsed lie about thinking your notice period was 6 months?

Could HAVE
Would HAVE
Should HAVE

As I said upthread, the only way to confirm something definitely is discrimination is to take it to court.

Tribunals get the benefit of both sides of the story. Not just one. ;)

Honestly. You actually applied for a new job while on Maternity and failed to mention that you can’t start for another 8 months? That’s crazy!

im all for rights for women but your antics are beyond. It doesn’t matter what the reason is - you can’t possibly think it’s normal to not mention that you won’t start for 8 months 🙄

What outcome do you want OP? It’s seems crazy to me as an employer that you would expect them to wait that long, and then go legal on them, are you not wanting to work after your maternity period for the NHS?

As you’ll have an ongoing legal case running, can you then apply for new roles if you are in the thick of a legal case against the NHS?

What job do you do that you thought your notice period would be 6 months? Are you board level?

Some of my drink just came out of my nose. 😂

Share the email please OP, would be helpful to see their exact wording.
the role you applied for - is it a consultant role? Otherwise standard notice period is 3m in NHS.
also, the application form asks for your notice period below where you input your current role details.

Madness. You are not in the position to take up their offer within a reasonable time period and so have completely wasted their time. The entitlement is mind blowing.

Sorry, 3m for more specialised or long service roles. Standard is around 4 weeks

A consultant would have gone straight to the BMA, not mumsnet.

@Holidayhappinessyou may be a lawyer, but clearly not an employment lawyer. It is only discrimination if they have treated her differently to someone who isn’t on maternity leave. So if they have evidence that someone else who wasn’t able to start for 6 months would have had their offer withdrawn, or if they can show that job roles haven’t been left open for 6+ months for other employees on maternity leave before.

It’s only discrimination if the offer was withdrawn because of the maternity leave. The OP says the recruiters response says “they cannot wait until January” so that clears up that point. They haven’t said solely “we are withdrawing because you’re on maternity leave”, they have explained they cannot wait until January. This would have been based on the OP telling them categorically she is on maternity leave until January.

At best case, it could be a breach of contract if the offer was withdrawn after the OP accepted, likely to result in a payment for the equivalent notice period (usually 1 week).

If you take them to a tribunal, what loss are you going to claim, given you already have a job so aren’t out of work? Any injury to feelings award would likely be fairly trivial.

It won’t get to tribunal. Would cost the trust at least 5k to respond to the ET1. If they run it past their lawyers and they advise there could be a case, they’ll offer to settle. Couple of £ tops

Yes there are clear guidelines in the NHS that unless all recruitment checks are completed within a stated time period the offer will be withdrawn.
The offer is firstly conditional - once the required checks are completed satisfactorily it is final offer.
Op is trying to stretch everything out to 6 months notice and taking 6 months for recruitment to try to prove her case.
The only 6 month notice period would be chief exec/ very senior roles.

Really shocking, OP. Frankly you’ve cheapened the word discrimination for woman who have actually been treated unfairly.

You might have a protected characteristic, but it’s not a trump card that justify unreasonable expectations on your part. The new department will be withdrawing the offer based on needing someone in situ sooner than half a year away, not solely because you’re on mat leave.

If they can convincingly claim that they would have kept the offer open for you if you’d been expected to return to work within 2 or 3 months, or that they would have withdrawn the same offer from a man who was on any kind of leave for the next 7 months, you’ll get no where.

You might get “lucky” and at conciliation they might throw a bit of cash to make you go away, but I hope not.

I’m in the NHS and I’m pretty sure that notice periods even for band 9 aren’t 6 months. Also I’ve never heard of HR checks in the NHS taking 3 months but I’m not an expert on that.

It may well be discrimination but, @sunflower1230, you are failing to distinguish between direct and indirect discrimination - this would be indirect (they are not discriminating against you because you are on maternity leave but your maternity leave is the reason you can’t start in the time frame they want to fill the position in. The fact they apparently mentioned your maternity leave in their email doesn’t change this.

Indirect discrimination can absolutely be legal (despite non-lawyers on this thread loudly proclaiming “it’s the law!”) and, as PP have pointed out, in this case it is likely legal if there is a genuine business need to fill the position more swiftly and they would have treated anyone else unable to start within the same sort of time frame as you the same. Nothing you have said suggests those factors would not apply here (and, again, their email (whilst ill advised) doesn’t suggest otherwise).

So your insistence that this is discrimination,
case closed, is misplaced. Based on everything you have said, if you get anywhere with a claim it will be for nuisance value.

I’m pretty sure if a guy had gone for the job in June and said ‘oh btw I’m not starting it for 7 months’ or if a woman not currently on mat leave said ‘soz, not starting until next year’ they’d have had the same response.