Not invited to Christmas party on maternity leave - discrimination?

[Cosmogirl86]

I'm hoping to get some advice on this as I'm not overly familiar with employment legislation, and I'm not certain what constitutes discrimination and what doesn't.

I have been on maternity since June and found out last week that the Christmas party has been arranged and I've neither been notified or invited. I only found out when a friend in the office told me as we chatting, she assumed I'd been asked.

The Christmas do is always paid for by the company so the employee does not pay for themselves and is therefore a benefit of the job. Everyone except those on maternity leave have been invited from what I can gather.

I have emailed my team leader several times, and eventually got a response to say its her not her responsibility to invite me and to contact hr. I contacted HR with no response. I have since found out from my team leaders manager that it is her responsibility to invite me, yet I still have nothing.

So after multiple emails, I am ready to give up as I don't like feeling like I'm begging to be included. However I am feeling very isolated and excluded due to this.

Does this count as discrimination? I'm based in Northern Ireland if that makes a difference?

I don't think it's discrimination but I thinks it's very shitty to not be invited at least. I still go to my old jobs Xmas parties and get invited to socials but we've always paid for ourselves (public sector). Not sure if that makes a difference?

People on mat leave are invited to our Xmas parties and many of them come.

I still get included in all work emails while on mat leave, then up to me if I engage with them or not.

Following your last update, I don’t think any of this is discrimination it’s just bad practise from your managers and HR.

The email thing, that could rightly or wrongly be put down to human error and I think that’s how it will be perceived and played in court too if it ever got that far. If you’re going down the discrimination route and determined to prove it the best you can hope for is an out of court settlement as I don’t think it would stand up at all.

Good to see so much solidarity from the sisterhood for someone experiencing maternity discrimination. God forbid that a woman may actually hope that the company she works for will treat her fairly on maternity leave

I have no expertise in this area but do remember reading a post by a mumsnetter with an HR based masters who did a dissertation that covered this area and apparently employee satisfaction/ retention is better following maternity leave if the company do simple things like remember to invite those on leave to the Christmas party.

I think you need to stop gossiping with another member of staff.

You'd be laughed out of a solicitors office saying "he said, she said".

It sounds like you've got a bit of a chip on your shoulder to be honest.

There's a lot of people on this thread that don't know what they are talking about. Denying promotion opportunities during maternity leave is definitely discrimination.

Think your work need to watch themselves with the not inviting those on maternity leave to the Christmas party as this may also be discrimination as she is being treated less favourably than her colleagues BECAUSE she is on maternity leave.

In fact I've just looked at three employment law websites and they all say that everyone even those on sick or maternity leave should be invited to Christmas parties to avoid discrimination claims.

However if your work are merrily not giving you pay rises or promotion opportunities then they obviously aren't too worried about discrimination.

I'd def add this to your list - maybe someone taking them to an employment tribunal will make them buck up their ideas!

@maidenover That is a given, of course you’d expect staff happiness and retention to improve in those circumstances.

What is massively difficult to prove is that these things aren’t just a genuine oversight on the companies part or if they are discrimination. The emails I can get as an oversight, I really can. Some person in HR has forgot to add OP to a distribution list - to the OP it looks and feels like discrimination (although I’m unsure how she knew about the internal vacancies if the only method was this email) but to the company it’s just one of those things.

The Christmas party does on a second thought feel like there may be more to it. It could be that the company assumed the OP didn’t want to be invited. It could be that the OP doesn’t want to go anyway but is using this as a reason to call discrimination. It could be that it is a more sinister reason.

Whatever the outcome (and from the limited facts here I don’t think a solicitor would take on this case as it is a case of he said she said and too many variables. There aren’t any facts or emails or proof it was discrimination rather than an oversight) one thing remains clear, the company need to sort out this for in future and how they advertise internal vacancies to ensure this scenario doesn’t happen again.

Also, the pay issue really should be sorted out. That is a genuine grievance as well, I’m sure they will and backdate it. They’ve admitted it was an error on their part so it’s their job to rectify it - which leads me to think what other unintentional errors are they making.

um no.

My office had many parties when people have been onmat leave.

why the frig would you want to go?

enjoy your leave.

@IDontEvenHaveAPla denying someone a pay rise because they are on maternity leave is absolutely discrimination and there is plenty of case law about it.

You cannot deny a woman a pay rise that they would have received had they been at work.

Not sure where you stand legally but I would feel discriminated against- especially as you have asked. I was invited to our Christmas dinner (although it's pay for yourself sadly) and a colleague's leaving drinks - I think it's nice to be invited unless you have said in advance not to contact you.

I should say, I work in employment law and know what I'm talking about. A lot on this thread is utter nonsense.

If it's a non-monetary perk/bonus, then I think it could be discriminatory, because, iirc, women on mat leave should still receive any 'perk' that other colleagues receive. That's why childcare vouchers were still 'paid' to women on mat leave even when their mat pay couldn't cover them. At least that was the case during my mat leaves, which were 8 and 10 years ago.

I don't have any legal training, and I don't work in HR, but at the time of my mat leave I did successfully appeal to my employer (which was a LA) to receive the non-cash perks my colleagues did.

By "gossiping", I assume you mean my much needed adult contact while at home with two young twins. I will not be giving that up any time soon. I'm also obviously not going into every single identifying fact in a public forum.

@ClownsandCowboys out of interest in your position, if you were or are an employment law solicitor right now, would you take this case on?

As to me I think the one cut and dried possible discrimination is the pay rise element of it. The others could all be disputed IMO - however I’m always up for learning so would appreciate your view.

The Xmas do on its own stands no chance at tribunal. The pay is worth pursuing, as there is clear case law, comparable (although not necessarily needed) and financial loss.

@Kolo sadly there was a ruling a couple of years ago about childcare vouchers and employers no linger have to continue to pay them. It was an EAT ruling.

It is sometimes worth building a pattern of behaviour in discrimination cases, but also sometimes worth focusing on the main issues, as a tribunal may see that more favourably.

Are the employer addressing the pay issue OP?

Obviously you're not giving full information on this thread but couldn't any of this be general fucks ups by HR?

When I was on maternity leave I was meant to get an email every week with updates, jobs etc. I did for a few months then they stopped. A few calls to HR and they started up again. Just an admin fuck up.

As for the pay rise are they denying it to you or did it not go through due to an error?

The party thing is being a bit petty IMO.

@ClownsandCowboys

@Kolo sadly there was a ruling a couple of years ago about childcare vouchers and employers no linger have to continue to pay them. It was an EAT ruling.

At the time I couldn't believe it was true. Seemed like a loophole with vouchers that would eventually have to be closed. Still, I was definitely going to fight for what I was due at that time and it made quite a difference to our lives at a pretty shaky time, financially.

It's crazy how many people on here are so confident in their knowledge on employment law that they're incorrectly advising OP to take maternity discrimination lying down.

Women have fought for a very long time for what employment rights we do have, and during maternity leave we are offered some protection in law. ML is continuous service (so not like you've left the job), and you should have the same access as anyone else who is employed by the organisation (because you are still employed by the organisation).

@Cosmogirl86, to not invite you to the Christmas party is at best mean spirited. Good luck with your legal issues. Demanding that your rights are upheld is not entitled or greedy.

@Kolo I don’t believe anyone is telling the OP to take the issues lying down at all. It’s one of those things where you have to think is it worth the battle?

The pay issue is massively out of order and needs to be resolved ASAP, in fact, that issue alone probably shows the incompetence of the HR team at OP’s workplace and then the promotion emails could just as a previous person said, a fuck up on their part. Proving it wasn’t a fuck up and that is was deliberately denying the OP promotion opportunities is going to be difficult.

The Christmas party, again could be a fuck up that’s being rectified by HR or the organiser, could be discrimination. It depends which side of the fence you’re on.

There has been too many of these errors though.

And to be clear, my query wasn't "why wasn't I invited to a Christmas party". It was "does a paid party count as a job benefit and is excluding me discrimination?"

I give up though. This is why cases don't make it to tribunal.

You really have too much time on your hands on mat leave if you are getting so worked up about this. No it's not discrimination, it likely just hasn't occurred to them to invite you.

And taking them to tribunal because you didn't get invited to a party is laughable. Women like you are why employers don't like hiring women of childbearing age.

Yes they ought to have been keeping in touch with you and it’s good practice for them to keep you informed of social events too. Unfortunately I was advised that unless I could also show that I was persistently telling my work place that they had been failing in their responsibilities to keep me informed then my case wouldn’t get anywhere.