Is it just up to the employer whether they treat maternity cover as a temporary assignment or a fixed-term contract?
I've been working as essentially temp staff owing to a recruitment freeze at my old place, but my department has just been binned so I am looking for work (sadly without the redundancy package offered to my employed colleagues).
In the job I am leaving, we had someone in as maternity cover for a team member, who got wage slips like employees, was eligible for a bonus etc.
I have just had an interview for a maternity cover role that I quite fancy, but they said it was a temp appointment and would go through an agency.
I was a bit disappointed as I'm fed up with having no contractual status.
So is it basically up to the employer how they set these roles up, and is it just my bad luck that I look likely to get the rough end of the deal in both situations?