Being asked to re-apply for job whilst on maternity leave?

[Nightsdrawingin]

I work for the NHS, am a highly skilled professional in a job I love. I am pregnant, going on maternity leave in 7 weeks time. I have 8 years continuous service in the NHS, but only a year in my current job. About a month ago, it was announced that there will be severe cuts to our department, which will involve everyone having to re-apply for a reduced number of jobs, some of which will be at a lower banding than I am currently on. The interviews will probably take place in the two months after my baby is born. They do not plan to make people redundant as this is too expensive, but will instead redeploy them to (in my opinion) the jobs no one else wants, which could be on significantly lower pay scales although pay is protected for one year.

No one has been able to tell me what this will mean for me, whether I could be automatically redeployed as I won't be able to come in for an interview with a tiny baby, or whether they could insist on me coming in for an interview. I don't think they could hold off interviewing me until I come back as this would affect everyone else's jobs. My manager implied that I should not take all my annual leave before going on M/L, in case I lost my job (and therefore my A/L entitlement) during that year - is that possible? Could I suddenly be left with no maternity pay or only SMP? I am also concerned my whole maternity leave will be dominated by worries about whether I will have a job to go back to.

Hi Nightsdrawingin

If you are on maternity leave and your role is made redundant, if there is another role available that is appropriate for you to do and does not have substantially less favourable terms and conditions, you should be automatically offered that role. So I think this means for you that if there are any roles that are on the same banding you should be offered one without having to interview for it?

If you were made redundant during your maternity leave, you would still be entitled to all your SMP. I'm afraid I'm not sure if you'd continue to get any enhanced maternity pay or not.

They can ask you to reapply for your job. Its a complex one.

If you are on mat leave then you are protected from redundancy if they do a reorganisation and create "new" jobs. I.e. there are different roles to what existed before as you must have one of these ring fenced for you.

This protection doesn't extend to if there are just less roles i.e. 10 doctors doing the same job being reduced to 8 doctors all doing the same role as they did before.

As they're not looking to make you redundant it is all about if they offer you something new is this "suitible" which if the new jobs are they could in theory ask people to take. If they refused could make you redundant but as new job offered and if it was seen as suitible then no redundancy payout would be due.

I would ask about the interviews and what they are looking for. I understand the first few months are tough but you could ask them to hold the interview when its convenient for you when you can get DH/DP (assuming they are there) to look after the LO for you then you should be able to attend. You can leave the LO for a few hours to do the interview so as long as its arranged in advance it should be a problem.

I wouldn't just refuse to meet them as they may make a decision without interviewing you which would be worse (esp if you refused to meet).

You'll have to check the OMP policy to see what happens during redundancy and if it stops / you have to pay it back. HR should know about this.

Thanks for responses. There will just be fewer roles I think, not different ones, although some will be on a lower banding, so I guess that means they can make me reapply without having to ringfence a job for me?

My concern about the interviews is that I will be competing against my colleagues who will be coming straight from doing the job to the interview, whilst I will be coming from complete immersion in babyland, breastfeeding, sleepless nights, all of that, and I can't see how I am going to perform well enough in that context to compete against them, nor that it is fair to ask me to do so. Actually getting someone else to look after the baby for a couple of hours is the least of my worries on this one.
I wouldn't refuse to meet them but I was wondering if they were allowed to call me in as I know when you are on sick leave your manager is not meant to hassle you, and was wondering if there was a similar clause during maternity leave about what they are not meant to do. Surely if they made my keeping my job dependent on attending an interview during my maternity leave that would be discrimination, as no one else is having to do that?

I think your getting ahead of yourself. Why not try to have the interview before you leave on mat leave?

Could you have a phone interview or they could arrange to meet you at home. Unfortunatly in this case I'm not sure your pregnancy gives you a get out of jail free card - as there are other jobs availible they might argue as "suitible" it a bit different from straight redundancy terms.

Don't ask them if you can / should go through the process early. If it happens while you are on maternity leave you will have better protection. If while on mat leave there is reorganisation and there are posts available at your current band they will have to offer you one without interview. You will not be required to go through a competitive process. You will be effectively much better off than your colleagues if you can be on mat leave when this happens. I would actually be tempted to start mat leave early if in any doubt.

Grevling, do you have a legal background or know for sure that they can call me in for interview whilst on maternity leave? Because I did think that they couldn't, but you seem sure they could. I still can't see that it would be seen as fair to interview me whilst in the early months of maternity leave but everyone else will be at work.

NHScutback, it sounds like from your name you might know something about the experience personally!
Others have also said that it is better to be on maternity leave whilst these things happen. I had thought about asking to be interviewed early but the problem is that they propose to do 'rounds' of interviews - the most senior posts first, then if you don't get one of those you can apply for the next level down, and so on, so I could potentially have to do 3 interviews, and at the moment it is unclear what jobs will be available, who will do the interviews etc. There has to be a 3 month consultation period too before they start any staff changes and that will start in April, so not sure if they could even interview me before then.
I asked my manager today and she knew nothing either, but said she will bring it up in a meeting next week, and as far as she knows they can't change my terms and conditions whilst on maternity leave. However, we have payment protection for one year, and I'm wondering if that would actually mean they could downgrade me significantly whilst arguing that my terms and conditions are the same for the next year?

I have joined the union so might give their legal hotline a ring - the difficulty is that it is all so vague at the moment.

yes I work in the NHS and we're threatened with similar. I've just advised someone I line manage to extend her mat leave to a year so she is 'protected' through the current process.
I would certainly call your union and check your rights. If they are doing a 3 month consultation first you should have enough time to escape the process through starting mat leave. If they are proposing a reduction in posts and you are on mat leave, providing one of those posts is suitable for you they will have to offer it to you. While you are on mat leave you will accumulate leave as you would normally. If there are no posts suitable for you (which doesn't sound the case from what you say) they could offer you an alternative or make you redundant. You are likely to be in a better position than the rest of the staff.

Thank you NHScutback, that is sort of what I was hoping for. Will ring union to check. I will definitely be on mat leave by the time it all starts, they can't cut the 3 month consultation period. I am concerned they might offer me a job I really don't want though, without giving me the chance to compete for the jobs I would would (i.e. the one I have at the moment).
The other thing that I hate about this whole situation is the resentment this could cause if they really do have to offer me one of the posts due to being on m/l - all the other women are already muttering about getting pregnant and the one man says he thinks he will be discriminated against as he can't go on m/l!

Nightsdrawingin - Not to be rude to Grevlin but I don't think that his/her advice is sound and is very much at odds with both my own experience (not NHS but very similar to you in terms of redeployment at a lower band) and knowledge (lawyer with a masters in employment law - not what I currently practice in though.) Do ring the Union but there is also Maternity Action and other organisations that can help you

Have a read of these and see what you think and then come back and ask more questions if you need to

www.maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/.../redundancy.pdf

www.maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/redundancyadditionalquestions.pdf

It is true that if your role is redundant while you are on maternity leave and there is a suitable alternative vacancy available it must be offered to you without having to compete with others. However 'without having to compete' doesn't mean 'doesn't have to come in for interview'.

As long as the interview is for the purposes of establishing whether you are suitable for the role, not pitting you against others, then there's nothing saying you can't be asked to come in.

Similarly, there may be a job/s they can argue aren't suitable in terms of the legal definition, but you would like to be considered for, in which case if the selection process involves an interview, then you would need to come in and interview with everyone else.

Or, looking at your most recent post, there may be more than one vacancy that could be defined as 'suitable'. As long as you get one of them you have no say whatever which one it is, so if there is more than one and you would prefer x vacancy, it's in your interests to come in and interview for it rather than wait and be given the job no one else wants but which is technically 'suitable' and meets the requirements of the legislation.

Just wanted to dispel the widely-held myth that an employer is not 'allowed' to ask women on maternity leave to come in for interviews. As long as they meet their requirements in terms of offering a suitable role where there is one without competition.

As Flowery says they may be allowed to ask you in for interviews although the recent case of Simpson v Endsleigh Insurance casts doubt on whether this is appropriate at para 31.:

"It seems to us that at the end of the day it is up to the employer, knowing what it does about the employee, to decide whether or not a vacancy is suitable. Ms Palmer suggested this places a very difficult task on employers when deciding, for example, whether or not to offer a more senior post to an employee who is on maternity leave. The Tribunal, at the end of paragraph 10.7, suggested that there was no reason why the Respondent could not choose to test suitability by assessment and interview. The IDS Handbook on Redundancy, at page 106, sets out the position thus:

"To a large extent, this puts an employee away on maternity or adoption leave in a far more advantageous position than if she were at work, since it may be that, had she been at work, she would not have been offered one of the available alternative jobs in preference to other more highly qualified candidates."

We are by no means satisfied that an employer could choose to test suitability by assessment and interview."

www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2010/0544_09_2708.html

However, legal intricacies aside OP, I would pitch up for an interview as Flowery suggests if you are asked but the case above (decided in September 2010 by the Employment appeal Tribunal) is a good overview (and relatively short read) on what constitutes a suitable alternative vacancy and makes it clear that the employer gets to choose what is suitable.

Thanks TheyKnow and Flowery for your very useful posts, especially the information sheets from Maternity Action which I will print out for my manager. I am still a bit confused though, does the stuff about 'the employer gets to choose' mean that they could assign me to another job without my consent? There are likely to be 3 sorts of jobs available, the first will be exactly like mine now, the second will be like mine now but on a lower payscale, and the last will be in a completely different dept. So are you saying that if I refuse to go to an interview they could assign me to any alternative 'suitable' job, but if I do go to interview all I will have to show is that I meet the requirements for the job rather than compete against everyone else? I obviously do meet the requirements as I am currently doing the job and competed for it last year.

I'm also really confused about the situation with being invited for interview or not - so many people seem to have had different experiences. Is it that I can be invited but that I cannot lose my job on the basis of poor performance at interview?

Hi Ive just read the maternity actions extra questions bit on the link posted as I too am preg and work in Gov funded dept under going restructure and will be on maternity leave whilst its decided. Having read the bit about Article 10 i think it was, you are more protected whilst on maternity leave but there was some difference between being on Ordinary Mat Leave and Additional Maternity leave. My main concern was I'd be ok all the time Im on Mat leave but the day you go back they a can make you redundant. The article 10 stuff seemed to indicate they cannot delay the decesion so they can do this - in a big organisation like NHS this would be hard because of the Union presence and protocol. So I would think you would be offerred an alt job like the one you currently have. I have talked to my boss openly and said what I would like should this happen in my team. The other lady preg in our team is very happy to be made redundant where as I really want to keep a comparable job. Good Luck

Nightsdrawinin all they have to do is offer you a 'suitable alternative'. It doesn't have to be the most suitable. If you would prefer job A they can put you in competition with others for it as long as they also have suitable job B they plan to offer you. If competition for job A means you would end up redundant, and there's no job B to offer you instead, then that's when they can't ask you to compete. If there is a specific job you want it is in your interests to interview for it to demonstrate that you are the best candidate. If there is another 'suitable' job you still may not get job A, but turning up for interview obviously improves your chances.

Ssmile in terms of protection agains redundancy there is no difference between OML and AML.