Refused interview whilst on maternity leave

[Nicola1892]

So I’ve just had my 3rd and final child. I’m on maternity leave due to go back end of March 2020. I’m a carer and at the beginning of August a full time care leader position was being advertised at the home, which is rare for this position on a full time contract to come up so I applied for it. After 4 weeks and hearing nothing I emailed work asking what was going on as I have told them i wanted to progress when I joined the home. After another week still hadn’t heard anything so went into work and I was offered a interview. (yay!) so interview day came, I got dressed up, shirt/skirt and got out all my NVQ and leadership qualifications and went into work. I was invited in 20 mins late and straight away asked if I was coming back now as I have applied for the job. I said no but im happy to come back beginning of January (2 months early) which they said they need someone now and assumed I wanted to come back straight away and that’s why I applied. At this point they refused to interview me, I told them that this was wrong and they couldn’t do this but they didn’t care so I left. I called ACAS who said they had committed sexual and maternal discrimination and that I could take them to court. I don’t want to do this as I work for a charity/trust and I’m not interested in the money. I’m just so bloody frustrated that this has happened when it’s illegal. The worst part is they said they are always looking for care leaders so I don’t understand why they couldn’t of at least interview me! I called HR but them and the area manager both agree with the home manager so I’m completely on my own. I asked them to email me stating they have refused to interview me due to me being on maternity leave and they have but have lied about when I said I could return to work and other parts of the conversation..... has this sort of this happened to other people? Is this normal? I just don’t know what to do, my hours are so good there but I can think of anything worse than to face my manager again

They aren’t discriminating based on her maternity rights, they are discriminating because they need someone right now. ffs

@Cleopatrai I couldn't agree more. I'm all for Women's rights but this is actually ridiculous.

I can only assume you don’t hire people or go to many job interviews cleo & zero. It’s perfectly standard.

Absolute numpties posting on here.

I know, these limited rights we’ve achieved, which as OP illustrates are often not even followed, and we’re still seeing attitudes like this

So where does it end then?

It doesn’t make sense to hire someone that can’t start for a couple of months.

It doesn’t make sense to hire a pregnant woman who will just be going off on maternity leave soon.

It doesn’t make sense to hire any woman between the ages of 25-35 because they’re probably going to get pregnant soon and go off on maternity leave (maybe even gasp multiple times!)

Why take on an employee with disabilities if you’re going to have to fork out on reasonable adjustments for them?

If you allow one based on employer convenience, why shouldn’t you allow them all?

See how fucking ridiculous that sounds?

Or: you can follow basic fucking employment law.

OP i’m sorry that you experienced this - to not even give you an interview is shitty. Are you sure you don’t want to take this further? Even internally?

What if the other interviewees were crap? At my company we’d rather have someone great that we have to wait a few months for (and retain an excellent member of staff) than have to employee a complete numpty that could start immediately!

OP is low risk too as she already works there and is presumably proven reliable, trustworthy and effective. That’s often a better bet than a stranger.

Yep, it’s so short sighted!

The more I think about it, the more ridiculous I find it defending the employer.

What other laws are they allowed to break because it’s inconvenient? Some Health and Safety ones have got to be a hell of a lot more time consuming and expensive than merely covering OP’s maternity leave if she got the job.

Or is it only OK to break the law when it fucks over women?

Dyme
The slippery slope argument is a local fallacy and a very weak argument. Just because X happens doesn’t mean Y will happen leading on to Z.

Dyme
The slippery slope argument is a logical fallacy and a very weak argument. Just because X happens doesn’t mean Y will happen leading on to Z.

I’m not using as a slippery slope argument though really. Just, why is it apparently OK to fuck over person X because of convenience but not person Y?

The law is on the OP's side. But it is cases like this that set women's rights back years. You can understand why smaller employers are put off employing women when some will kick up a fuss about not getting a job that they're not available to do.

OP you're entitled to be considered for the job. But you're bloody "entitled" if you think they should recruit you over someone that is ready and able to do the job when it is needed.

I find it very strange that women on maternity leave have more rights than people with disabilities. Having children is a choice, disability is not, yet disabled people are far more likely to experience discrimination and barriers to employment.

Disabled people and women have the same rights, evidence of discrimination is not the same as not having rights!
What happens if the available-right-now candidate reveals she is pregnant once she starts the job, as she is completely entitled to do?

“You can understand why smaller employers are put off employing women when some will kick up a fuss about not getting a job that they're not available to do.”

Why can you understand it? It doesn’t cost the employer anymore money. At worst, it’s a small amount of extra admin and management time. It’s no big deal. You’d be a pretty shit company if you couldn’t handle that.

OP is a carer. The staff turnover is likely to be massive regardless. This won’t impact at all

Well thank you to the people that actually responded with helpful comments. Our care home does not hire people to cover maternity leave, so that’s irrelevant. And I’m actually not going back to the job even though they told me to reapply when I return but it will be a 0 hour contract so no use to me. Don’t know why I bothered writing the post in the first place, I actually thought other women would be supportive. But no....... I’ll just sit on minimum wage all my life in a shit job because I’ve got kids and I’m being refused every opportunity I go for. Might as well kill my self now

OP, I think lots of posters are being supportive, no? Ignore those saying your employer is right, many of us are on your side (as is the law).

Aaw lovely I can see why you're upset, but I don't think they wanted to give you the job regardless of your maternity leave.
The way you had to chase and call etc just to get an interview - there was very probably someone else lined up for the role from the start.
Enjoy the rest of your mat leave and start looking for something else before you're due back, good carers are like gold dust, you'll get snapped up somewhere

I do understand everyone else’s point of view, but the law is on my side and they are always looking for care leaders so I don’t see what the problem was with me applying. Why should I lose out? They have only managed to hire 2 care leaders in the last 18 months and one quit within a couple of months. The post never had anything about start date etc and it normally takes people a good 2-3 months to start due to checks etc anyway. Just fed up with trying to better myself and it keeps getting thrown back in my face. The whole situation has made me feel worthless, literally can’t even describe the way it’s made me feel.

Thank you, I’m new to this so only just worked out how to find my post. I love my residents like my own family but don’t think I could face my manager without giving her a mouthful which will result in me being fired so might aswell leave ☹️

I wouldn't want to work for them any more not only on the basis they HAVE discriminated against op and BROKEN THE LAW (why are respondents REFUSING to accept this?!) but also because they're clearly thick as 2 short planks!

They should AT LEAST have had the sense to carry on with the interview and then could easily have said to op "another candidate was stronger" or similar bullshit!

By doing it this way they've left themselves WIDE open to legal action! Not to mention appalling publicity! They're fucking idiots as well as misogynistic twats!

"Our care home does not hire people to cover maternity leave" wtf! In which case are they employing more than than they are legally required to in terms of ratios the "rest of the time"? Sounding dodgier by the post!

Op don't leave this could well make things much harder for you, do what's best for YOU. Try and find a new job before mat leave up and if you don't (I think you will) then go back and keep looking but certainly don't be going above and beyond for them. Bite your tongue with manager (until exit interview).

It's shit and it SHOULDN'T be happening but sadly discrimination is still rife - just usually employers are more sneaky (and less stupid!) about it.

I know it’s ridiculous, my manager is vile and opening tells us carers we are shit at our jobs, we don’t get breaks half the time because we don’t have time. We are forced to go on training on our days off, we are always blames for being short staffed as apparently we should be covering all the shifts with overtime. They can’t get staff because of the manager and her reputation. It’s sad but this or retail is the only jobs in our area, and with 3 kids I can’t do retail again even if the money is triple.

It angers and saddens me how employment rights and decent treatment of employees has gone to shit in this country!

I hear/read of such horrific things both on mn and in real life from family/friends.

And usually for crap wages too!

I used to work in elderly care and it very much also sounds as if your residents needs aren't being met either, indeed it sounds like they may not even be operating legally! (And the minimum legal requirements are shite!)

It's completely unacceptable!

Whoever can start first gets the job. They could have loads lined up, but you pushed into the Q.
Maybe another opportunity will come up once you go back? Don't wind them up now or they'll never trust you again.

Tensixtysix if you've nothing sensible to add, why bother? What "queue" is there to push into, in terms of wanting to be interviewed for a job? She hasn't even had the opportunity.