Employer changed minds about return after maternity (temp contract)

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Hey all, I’m not sure what I’m expecting here, maybe just a sounding board or a little advice.

I had been employed on a rolling temporary contract via a recruitment agency for over 2.5 years when I started maternity leave.

It was all verbal but my manager at the company said I was welcome to return. Their words being not to worry, the role is mine. We had informally discussed subjects like reduced hours, remote working, coming in to catch up during my leave etc. My role was advertised as maternity cover.

I messaged my manager news of the birth shortly afterwards, they sent their congratulations.

A few months later I sent a message saying we had started our nursery enquiries and it would be great to catch up once we found somewhere we liked and had availability, so we could finalise on what returning to work would look like. Their response was positive and to let them know when.

Around a month after this, I got in touch to say we had found a nursery and it would be great to meet up whenever was suitable. I didn’t get a response and a few days later, the recruitment agency got in touch saying that due to the time of year there wasn’t enough work available for my return. At this point I still had 4 months maternity leave yet. A few days later I found out that my replacement hadn’t been working out well and just that week they had been replaced by another individual. They had been employed for a further three months up until all contractors were dismissed due to the corona outbreak.

Just wondering what you’re thoughts are on this? At the time I was upset, felt very misled but altogether my manager was within their rights due to the temporary nature of the contract. Being told I was unable to return due to low work whilst my replacement continued their employment seems misrepresentative at best.

However, due to the current situation there would no longer be a job anyway. It’s been something to wrap my head around.

Would be great to hear your thoughts, thank you for reading.

I think it was silly for your manager to verbally promise things to you a place back when there’s no way of seeing that far ahead how things would have been after your maternity leave - funding gets cut, recruitment freezes happen etc. From a financial point of view they would probably have had to pay the recruitment agency some sort of finders fee for bringing you back on board; so it makes financial sense for them to extend the contract of someone they’ve already got in role rather than bring you back; especially if the work was drying up l and they were maybe looking at getting rid of the need for a temp soon.

It’s unfortunate though and one of those shitty outcomes of being in an insecure temp role; it can really lull you into a false sense of security if you’ve been with the same company a long time. Hope you have some luck finding something else once lockdown is lifted

I am not an employment specialist but where I work we won't keep temps on longer than 12 months as their is a perception that you have gained rights are you are mimicking a permanent contract.

I am sure someone else will know the rules better.

Are you employed by the agency or by the company you’ve been working for?

Many businesses have made people redundant, millions more are furloughed until the lockdown ends and then will be made redundant.
It’s a recession. Vacancies are not being filled and those that are the pay is being cut.

You can blame your situation on Covid.