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?

Flowery is right it is direct discrimination. As are the following points whilst pregnant and/or on parental leave (your still employed by the company - regardless if it's paid or unpaid leave).

This is a snipit from the Australian Human Rights Commision...
"A range of different types of discrimination, including both indirect and direct forms, were experienced by women throughout pregnancy/return to work and by men during parental leave and on return to work. The types of discrimination in this chapter include:

• negative attitudes towards pregnant women and mother and fathers
• health and safety issues
• recruitment bias against working parents
• changes to salary, conditions and duties upon announcing pregnancy, while on parental leave or on return to work
• being refused leave for the purpose of caring responsibilities
• limited contact during parental leave
• missing out on career advancement opportunities during pregnancy/return to work
• being denied flexible arrangements on return to work after parental leave
• inadequate support in workplaces for women who are breastfeeding/expressing
• dismissal and redundancy".

In my example recently. It seems my team/leader seem to pick and chose what I'm updated on (or invited to).
E.g. there has been a recent structural change in my team and I have not been informed about it properly yet (I found out from my colleague who is a friend of mine).

I was also contacted and invited to the team I work with directly christmas lunch, but I was not contacted or informed about the company christmas party (where all employees are invited). I found this especially odd knowing that last year, others who were on maternity leave were invited. (Note: I only went on my maternity leave halfway through this year and worked all of the first half).

So..my intent is not to sue or put formal complaints through...but I can understand where this original posting and the person who wrote it is coming from. It actually makes you feel like shit to be blunt. The same happened to my colleague friend who is due back from her maternity leave in a month (and she has been working 1 day a week in the lead up as part of her keeping in touch days.

”I'm not the lawyer or study about employment law. Just my opinion.”

Ok. Well I’ve been studying and advising on employment law for 20 years, so if it’s all the same to you I’ll stick with my opinion.

Someone I knew filed maternity discrimination and got double figures from the company 💰

It’s undoubtedly a discriminatory act. What might vary is how you handle it.

If the act was committed with no malicious intent, through an error or oversight, was an isolated incident and the person is/would be completely mortified to realise what had happened and would rush to put things right, then clearly a grievance/legal claim wouldn’t be necessary and a simple conversation would be appropriate.

If the same act was part of a pattern and/or deliberate less favourable treatment and/or the person didn’t think they’d done anything wrong/had no intention of putting it right, then a grievance and/or legal claim may be necessary or appropriate.

Lack of malicious intent doesn’t mean it wasn’t discrimination, but as with anything, context is king as to how it is addressed.

Your and your organisation can arrange KIT days - Keep in Touch days nothing else.... I wouldn't take it personally, it is probably just an oversight that they haven't invited you as you are on leave

It's probably more a case of 'out of sight, out of mind' that you weren't invited. Maybe they assumed you were too busy or something?

Personally, I'd let it go ...