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