I recently returned from 6 months maternity leave, and shortly before returning to work was called to a meeting and told that I was being mapped into a ‘suitable alternative’ role as my role that I had before (going on maternity leave) no longer existed. I had no formal consultation and was not aware that my role was at risk until this meeting. (I knew a restructure was taking place whilst I was on maternity leave so had asked on a number of occasions during my 6 months maternity leave whether my role was safe and had been advised that there was nothing to report).
By contrast all other employees impacted by the restructure had a full consultation resulting in various outcomes.
The role offered is on the same terms and conditions but is a loss of status and a demotion, and doesn’t match my previous role at all in terms of roles and responsibilities and I will be expected to travel at least once a fortnight which will be difficult with a young baby. My employers are adamant that the ‘mapped role’ is a suitable alternative as my terms and conditions (grade) remain the same.
There were other roles that became available during the restructure which I was told I couldn’t apply for or were not suitable as there were a Grade below mine however it has now become apparent that these ‘lower roles’ are actually attracting a higher salary than mine.
I have raised a grievance (through a solicitor) with my employer but they do not appear to acknowledge any unlawful activity and progress is slow.
I am very disillusioned by their behaviour since I have returned to the workplace - I have been ignored by senior employees and directors and not been given any purposeful work.
I am a long standing (> 15 years) and loyal employee who has had a successful career, and my employer is a FTSE 100 company and I would have expected more from them. I remained committed to the company whilst I was pregnant continuing to work long hours (in my third trimester) to ensure deadlines were met during some challenging times.
I’m pretty sure what my employer has done is wrong so my question is – does anyone have any advice that they can offer or put me in touch with a solicitor with a good track record of fighting maternity discrimination cases.
Thanks for reading my (lengthy) post and I look forward to any comments.