Is a secondment a suitable role after mat leave?

[thefinalcountdown]

I joined a company as a permanent employee, and my first 'role' was to cover maternity leave. At the end of the cover I announced I was pregnant and was given various other temp roles until my own mat leave.

I am returning to work after 52 weeks mat leave, and none of my previous temporary roles exist due to numerous restructures.

I have been told that the only suitable alternative role is a secondment to cover another maternity leave. Is this deemed to be a suitable alternative?. I am concerned that I have no 'proper' role to fall back on at the end of this secondment and would be at risk of redundancy (with no maternity protection either).

Also, I feel disadvantaged with regards to flexible working as any part time/ job share would only be on a temporary basis. I have asked to return part time and have been refused, on the grounds that there is too much work for the role to be part time. They have ruled our job share as they have no-one suitable internally, and they do not want to recruit externally on a temp basis (plus recruiting a temp for the role would be much more difficult than recruiting permanently in my line of work).

I was told that there was no need to complete a formal flexible working request as I had no role to request it on, so this is currently being managed informally. I'm now thinking I should pursue this, but a month has already passed since I asked to return part time, and I am due back in 2 months.

Sorry, a lot to take in but I'm feeling apprehensive about the whole situation. Advice please!

Bump

Suitable means the same or no less favourable terms and conditions, so if your previous roles were all temporary in nature as well then on what grounds would you say this one isn't suitable?

Is there a permanent role available that they won't consider you for? If there isn't then the alternative to this secondment is redundancy anyway, so not sure how it helps you to argue that the role isn't suitable on the grounds that you may be at risk of redundancy in a few months.

In terms of your flexible working request, you are entitled to request flexible working for whatever role you are in, so I suggest you put in a formal request.

Thanks. When you put it like that I suppose it does sound suitable! I was not taken on as a floating resource, but that's what they have been using me as.

I'm told there are no other roles available. 2 newly created roles at a higher grade have been filled whilst I was away (one internal, one external) and I was not told about either. One of these contains a large proportion of the role I was doing prior to mat leave. I think I can raise a grievance about this but I'm not sure what I would achieve as the roles have been filled.

I am going to complete a formal flex working request. I suppose I feel bitter that not only have I missed out on a possible promotion (I understand that I may not have got the job, but would have liked the opportunity) but also I may be at risk of redundancy. I work for a large company and there has been no mention of redundancy but I still feel at risk.

Hi there, I'm in the same boat as you, would really be interested to see how you've been getting on?