Returning to work & director blocking secondment

[Loobylou77]

Hi,

I will be returning to work shortly and while I've been on maternity leave I've successfully interviewed for and been offered a new role within a different team of the company I work for.

The role is being offered as a secondment as it's covering another person's maternity leave, however my current director is saying that she won't approve it as a secondment because there are other vacancies in our team and she doesn't want to have to backfill my role with a contractor (which has obv been held for me but hasn't actually backfilled while I've been on mat leave). I've been told that this means that if I take the role I will be without a job when the other person's maternity leave ends, same as an external contractor would be.

There have been some quite big restructures to the department while I've been away and my team has also been restructured. None of the projects I was working on before are now within my remit. I still have the same job title and it's still at the same level but the projects I'd be responsible for are not of the same 'standing' as those I was responsible for before I went on leave.

Can anyone give me advice on what my position and rights are? Is my director allowed to block a development opportunity to save the 'inconvenience' of finding someone to cover me? Does the fact I'm coming back after mat leave make any difference to my rights?

Thanks

Is she saying you're not 'allowed' to take the job at all, or just saying that if you take this temporary role she can't guarantee your job will be held open for you while you are there? Presumably she's not saying you can't take the job you've been offered, but saying she is not prepared to hold open your job for an undefined could-be-six-month-could-be-a-year-could-be-anything-in-between-with-not-much-notice period of time?

You're not entitled to that, no.

In terms of what you are entitled to, you are entitled to return either to the same job if coming back after 6 months or less, or to a suitable job on no less favourable terms and conditions if you've taken longer. If the job you are returning to is same level, same job title, same pay and same work, then I don't think the 'standing' of the projects you are involved in now is a problem.

Thanks flowery - she isn't saying I can't take it, she's saying that she won't approve it as a secondment which means I have to take it as a role with a fixed end date. So she's entitled to do this?

There's no legal entitlement to secondments, no. Whether to allow an employee to go on secondment and have their job held open is entirely a matter for the employer - it's a business decision.

So unless there is an internal policy guaranteeing secondments, or you have reason to believe that the reason why this secondment request isn't being granted is discriminatory, then there's not a lot you can do.

Ok, thank you