Redundancy after Maternity

[NicolaC17]

Up until September, I was on maternity leave. Once my leave finished I was put onto furlough (been about 4 weeks). I have since been told I am being made redundant and the maternity cover has been appointed in a similar role (but with a different job title).

Anyone know where I stand on this? Aside from the fact I have worked there for 12 years and the replacement hasn’t even done a year.

I’m appealing because I don’t think my scoring was fair but want to cover the point of maternity cover being given the role.

You haven’t really said enough to determine whether this was unfair or discriminatory or not. You might need to explain how the procedure went a bit more.

However I would say it seems suspicious based on your limited information.

There's not necessarily a problem with the person who was doing your maternity cover getting the role. Whilst you are on maternity leave, if your own role is redundant, and there is a suitable alternative vacancy, you must be offered it, and can't be expected to compete with others for it. However this additional protection only applies if the redundancy takes place whilst you are on maternity leave, which you are not any more.

It might be unfair if it's not a genuine redundancy, ie your work is really still there, they've just repackaged it with a different job title.

It might be unfair because of scoring, as you mention

But something else leaps out at me. If you were immediately placed on furlough, that suggests there was no work available, which obviously ties in with the role being redundant. Fine. But if there was no work available such that you were placed straight on furlough, why is there a maternity cover person in the first place?

How long were you on maternity leave? If it was more than 26 weeks then you are not entitled to return to the same role even if the maternity cover is still in place.