Turned down for promotion

[saturdaynightgin]

DP has been turned down for a promotion in work, the reason given is absence.

He’s only had 5 days off (not including annual leave) in the last 12 months, and these were for unpaid parental leave when our DCs were ill or in hospital.

Is this some form of discrimination and is he able to challenge this? Or do we just have to accept that it’s part of being a parent?

That's a tough one. Do your children have a disability? There is protection against disability discrimination and this can extend to carers.

That seems very harsh to deny a promotion due to 5 days unpaid leave. Were they planned or all energy leave?

Sorry, emergency leave.

No disabilities. One was cos DD had chicken pox and I’d already had 4 days unpaid leave and the rest were for DS (3 months) when he had two separate stays in hospital

more fool his employers. if they want to have policies that discriminate against parents they are choosing to limit the range of talent they can benefit from.

Discrimination against parents is unfortunately not illegal but that doesn't make it a sound business practice. The only thing to do is to ensure they don't profit from their discrimination by ensuring they get the expense of having to recruit and train someone less experienced than your DP.

There are lots of parent-friendly employers out there. DP doesn't have to work for horrible people.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but could they be using this as a bit of an excuse because they dont like him/rate him for whatever reason?

That seems weird if it was unpaid leave. He needs to make sure any notes on his absentee records are accurate. They might have it recorded as sick leave.

No definetly not discrimination, just unfair. Having kids is not a protected characteristic. Being an experienced manager- this sounds more like an “easy to say” type of thing rather than the actual reason.... I’ve certainly experienced other people saying similar things before :) hope I’ve helped a little!!