Advice Needed - Sabbatical request for 12 months following maternity leave denied on grounds of lack of continuity....

[Fullofgoodideas]

Ok (deep breath) Sorry if this has already been covered but this is my first post and having trawled the talk boards I can't find an answer! I am currently in my last month of a 12 month maternity leave and have just been informed by my line manager that my request for an additional 12 month sabbatical has been declined. Her main reason was the lack of continuity for customers and colleagues by my role being covered by 2 different people over 2 years. In essence because I've already been off for a year (on mat leave) this has jeopardised this request. I had believed I had a strong case for the request as there was already someone covering my role who wished to remain in it, however despite knowing that I had requested a sabbatical my line manager decided to offer her a 'more suitable' role that had just been created within the team, this has then lead to the continuity issue. There is nothing in the policy to state that a Sabbatical cannot be taken following a mat leave or other period of absence so I must admit I do feel very disappointed. However I work for a huge global company so don't imagine that they have done anything underhand....My role is also in the HR department so can't seek advice as this will get back to my LM.
Sorry for long post! I guess I am just wanting to know I am being treated fairly and it is all above board....:(

It's difficult to say without looking at the terms and conditions of your sabbatical policy, but certainly where I work sabbaticals are very much at the discretion of the line manager, and tend to be viewed favourably if the person is going to do something that will benefit the company in the long run - i.e. learning a new skill or broadening experience, or where they've worked for the company for a long time and want a break to do something specific. You don't say why you want a sabbatical, or why it would be good for the company to let you do it, rather than just good for you.

Although it might seem convenient for the person currently covering your role to continue to do so, it might not make sense to your manager for lots of different reasons. Maybe you're better at your job than she is, and your manager would rather have you back? Maybe she's ideal in the newly created role, which leaves your role difficult to fill?

I would also be careful about being out of the workplace for two years - there's a lot of truth in 'out of sight, out of mind' and you're not entitled to have your exact job back on your return like you are with maternity leave.

As a manager, I have to say I would question the commitment of someone who wanted a sabbatical straight after a year out of the workplace on mat leave - my concern would be that after the sabbatical they would not want to come back at all and I would have spent two years mucking about with temp cover when I could have just recruited someone new.

Not sure if this is any help at all!

yes without looking at the relevant policy it's difficult to say, but I can't imagine for a minute that granting sabbaticals is anything other than discretionary - I'm sure you're not entitled to insist upon it, so in that case there's nothing you can do.

Thanks for your comments. Sabbaticals are at the discretion of the line manager for my company also, our policy however does clearly state that their purpose is for an employee to take time away from their role for a number of reasons, not just to further develop skills (although I suspect that this would be the most favourable reason) and I know they have been granted to others for the same reason as my request - however not following maternity leave.
I think that your last comment hit the nail on the head as to why my manager doesn't want to approve my request (the mucking about with cover part).

I don't think my commitment is questioned - I certainly hope not....I would just leave now if I wished to leave longer term, morally I would hate to mess my company about as I have worked for them for 10+ years and am terribly loyal.

My reason for applying was the result of pursuing several options of reducing my working week from the pre-mat leave of 4 days to 3 or 2 at a push. I'd discussed this with my LM before the mat leave and believed that a 3 day a week option was potentially a possibility, this has since been ruled out as an option so hence the decision to request the sabbatical as usually we are a very family friendly business. This would mean I would have a year with my DD & DS before my DD starts school. Having worked a 4 day week previously I know this isn't the ideal balance for me so the option of taking additional time to spend with the children - knowing that there was a job for me to return to would have been a fantastic opportunity - sadly not to be for me.

Thanks Flowery. I just wanted to make sure that everything was above board which it seems to be. Just need to decide what to do next.......

So would the request have been approved if you had not already been on maternity leave?

If that is the case then you could argue you have been discriminated against for taking maternity leave and that is a breach of the Equality Act 2010.

Of course you've not got long until you go back. You may want to request some parental leave to buy you more time and take any accrued annual leave.

If you received enhanced maternity benefits and pay during your OML, the company may be disinclined to approve it because you would not then be completing your 'returning to work' requirements, they may think you are trying to leave by the back door.

If someone returning to work after ML put in a sabbatical request to me in such circs, I would automatically assume they were not planning to return or simply could not face returning, so I would be concerned that I would spend a year not knowing what would happen next with my employee. But I'd still grant it.

I see KateM's point, but I'm not sure how clearcut it would be in practice. Their defence would be that they would be unlikely to grant a sabbatical after any extended period of absence (eg long term illness), and therefore gender irrelevant. The claimant would then claim that likelihood of long absenses inherently more common in women than men because of incidence of matenrity, hence indirect discrimination. I'm not sure if OP should refer to it in any appeal or not....

TBH I think there is very little point in trying to force someone back when they don't want to come back, but there's no accounting for some folk.

Sorry to be boring but as regards any comparison between absence for other reasons such as sickness and those related to pregnancy/maternity legally none can be made.

Many years ago there used to be a direct comparison made between pregnant women and sick men when looking at absence and leave. That is now considered to be wholly inappropriate after several EU Directives have pointed out there is no relationship between pregnancy and sickness and it is derogatory to make a link. The EA made pregnancy/maternity a special characteristic all of it's own.

I completely agree all other points SS makes, particularly regarding forcing someone back who doesn't want to be there.

quite right too, for picking me up on that one

Gosh I just reek of annoying and a bit too keen "newly qualified" don't I?

at geeky Katie..

OP I think the chances of you being able to demonstrate with anything like enough certainty that you would have had your request approved had you been at work are slim and I think it wouldn't be worth arguing anyway really in terms of bringing any kind of claim or getting an outcome you'd be happy with.

How about exploring taking a shorter period of time off with annual leave and parental leave?

I took a career break after I went on maternity leave. I didn't go back.

Tbh I would view someone as taking a sabbatical as keeping their options open for as long as possible and would be inclined to think they weren't going to come back at the end of it. Quite apart from that, taking a sabbatical means you wouldn't be entitled to come back to your original job pre matt leave so it leaves the company in a potentially difficult position of having to keep a position open for you but not necessarily your original one, iyswim.

Every where I've worked sabbaticals have only really been used by women wanting a bit longer off with their family. Admittedly the only person who worked for me didn't come back although a cock-up with the previous manager meant she was still being paid until I started

This bit was what got me thinking: Her main reason was the lack of continuity for customers and colleagues by my role being covered by 2 different people over 2 years. In essence because I've already been off for a year (on mat leave) this has jeopardised this request.

Has she put any of this in writing? It might be interesting to look at if she has.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply :) I know that this is probably not a common request. I did however fully intend to and strongly wish to return to work following the sabbatical. I've never had a career break, gap year, sabbatical in my life and even though it would be financially tight to take a year out I really wanted to have that time for me and my family so I could return to work knowing that I had had that time with them and in away absolve some of the guilt I feel about being a working mother. I know many members of my team who are unhappy as they too cannot reduce their hours to the 3 day ideal - so with this in mind I thought my manager would relish the chance to not add another unhappy member back into the fold!

I do however appreciate your comments about enhanced maternity leave but I know that many associates leave after their 1 year maternity leave and the company never asks them to pay this back - so I don't feel they would think I am trying to get out of that.

I may not take this further but for my own piece of mind I really wanted to be sure that I was not being discriminated against by requesting the sabbatical following my maternity leave. Our maternity policy states that no employee should be worse off by being on maternity (or words to that effect) and I feel that in this case I am.

Katie: I believe that had I not been on maternity leave they may have approved this request, Their reasons have been purely about the 2 year absence. I know someone who was granted a sabbatical for exactly the same reasons as my request however they came back from their maternity leave for 1 year and then had a 1 year sabbatical.

Again thank you for all of your comments :)

Well if it's purely about a two year absence where one year is maternity leave you would have reasonable cause to argue discrimination IMO. Certainly as an employer I'd want to have a better, more robust reason for declining your request!