Promotion opportunity been offered to less experienced colleague while I’m on mat leave. Any advice?

[Winterhotchocolate]

I’ve just found out that while I was on mat leave my line managers job has been offered to someone with much less experienced than me. Are they allowed to not inform me of an opportunity like this just because I’m on mat leave? It would have been advertised on the company job board (I assume) but normally, if you are in the office, they’d inform you verbally or by email of any obvious promotion opportunities or any vacancies within your team. I’ve been in my current role 6 years because it’s very rare for such an obvious promotion to become available so this is a massive setback. I could be waiting a long time for another similar role. WWYD? Should I ask for a meeting with current line manager to discuss? Can they legally overlook me when I’m on mat leave? Or should they have called me to let me know?

How have you chosen to keep in touch while on mat leave and do you have access to the company intranet where the vacancy was advertised or did you have to hand back your IT while away from the office?

How are promotions dealt with.? At our place they are
advertised and whilst leadership might have a word with anyone they think is particularly suitable, it's really down to the individual to apply/express an interest in vacancies.

It's an interesting one and I hope someone who knows about this stuff comes along soon because whilst it does feel wrong, on a practical level I can see why they'd want someone who can take up the position now, rather than on their return form maternity leave.

When are you due back and what efforts have you made to keep in touch/let them know you'd be interested if such an opportunity came up.

If it was widely advertised I wouldn’t think you can do anything.

Do you think you would have walked straight into the job? I’m always cautious of the ‘I have been here x number of years’ as that doesn’t always equate to the most skilled or best choice person for the job.

Personally I would have thought that the onus would have been on you to look out for promotion opportunities.

Where I am such opportunities must be advertised widely (unless it's a short term 'acting up' appointment to fill a vacancy temporarily). They take particular care that anyone on a longer term absence, especially mat leave, is informed so that they have the opportunity to apply. This is to avoid precisely the OP's situation, that someone could claim they were disadvantaged/discriminated against on the basis of mat leave.

This is the public sector and not UK however.

When I was on my first mat leave, I was contacted by my line manager for precisely this reason and it was emphasised that my being on mat leave should not prevent me from applying.

That wasn't for a job I would ever have considered applying for, but on paper I fit the criteria of a potential candidate and it was a role where promotion opportunities were few and far between.

As with pp though, this was public sector.

In answer to the questions:

• Normally a vacancy would be advertised on the job board. I did do some spot checks but it’s a massive company and there’s hundreds of jobs on there at any one time so it is usually word of mouth that highlights a suitable role. I didn’t see this role but assume it would have been advertised

• we agreed that they would call me if anything important was happening (they have called but not mentioned this role) and I agreed that I would come in for keeping in touch days if there was anything big happening (hence why I went in and found out about this position being filled!)

• if I’d been in the office I’d definitely have known about it so I have been disadvantaged by not being on mat leave. I think it’s a genuine oversight rather than anything malicious.

• it’s not just because I have been there x years that I think I would be suitable. It’s the obvious next step for me and in previous career discussions with line manager it’s been agreed that I should look out for this role becoming available. My line manager has changed while I’ve been on mat leave tho.

Just to be clear I’m not upset to not have been given the role. I’m upset I wasn’t given the opportunity to apply. The recruitment process in my company is fair ....but I didn’t get chance to participate in the recruitment process.