Is this pregnancy discrimination?

[twinklelittlestar01]

Hi all,

I would like some advice please.

I am currently on mat leave and have a return to work date at the end of the 52 weeks.

There is currently some changes to the working pattern so all staff are going through a consultation process. As I am on mat leave, I asked for a 1-1 meeting with my manager to discuss my working pattern on my return - I am still awaiting a meeting date.

However, I have just found out from a friend that my hours have been offered to someone else to cover my maternity period and that she's also been told that it could become a full time position as i will "probably be part-time on return or not return at all".
I'm absolutely fuming as I have a history with said manager because when I was previously off sick with a miscarriage, she had marked it as gynaecology disorders on the stage 1 attendance review which would have affected my job. This is because I had previously called in sick for gynae issues and any further sickness would have progressed me to stage2/dismissal but as the miscarriage was pregnancy related they couldn't punish me.
Against my better judgment, I didn't raise a grievance at the time, purely because there were more important stuff on my mind and I didn't want ill feelings at work but now I wish I had so she wouldn't continue pulling this crap with me.

Am I being over sensitive about my job being offered to someone else? Is this pregnancy discrimination? As it happens, my home situation requires me to go back full time but now I feel as I'm being pushed out!

Should I raise a grievance?

Any employment law advise would be great!

Thanks in advance
Twinkle xx

It depends what you mean by 'your hours being offered to someone else' - it's totally normal to have a maternity cover in, obviously someone needs to do your work while you are off and employing someone to do this on a fixed term contract (or asking an existing employee to cover those hours/shift temporarily) is in no way discrimination. You have the legal right to return to your job after maternity leave, this should be the same job you left, or if this is not practical, a comparable job on the same terms and conditions of employment which would include similar hours, same salary etc. This page explains all you need to know.

I get that you don't get on with your manager and her comment about you 'probably' not coming back full-time is not nice or accurate, but it does sound from what she's said (and bearing in mind you are only hearing this second-hand so it may have become garbled) as though she's stuck to the rules, in that she's said to the cover person that it could become permanent in the future, implying it's not permanent now i.e. it's a temporary maternity cover, so she's acting correctly and no discrimination has taken place, although I suppose you could interpret the comment as harassment/trying to indirectly pressure you into not coming back - I don't think there's much to be gained from pursuing this as a grievance though as (a) she can just deny ever saying that (b) even if she admits she said it she'll probably claim to have just misunderstood your intentions or to have misspoken or similar.

I think maybe you could send her a polite passive aggressive email, perhaps cc-ing in HR, 'reminding' her that your intention is to return to work full-time on XX date as per your legal right to do so and you could link the page above or your work maternity leave policy if you have one. If she's then silly enough to give you further evidence that she doesn't want you back or replies saying she's already offered your job permanently to someone else, that would absolutely be worth pursuing and I'm sure HR would instantly correct her as they won't want a maternity discrimination case on their hands. But otherwise I think you need to sit tight, enjoy the rest of your pregnancy/baby and try not to stress, difficult as that is...

@maxelly

It depends what you mean by 'your hours being offered to someone else' - it's totally normal to have a maternity cover in, obviously someone needs to do your work while you are off and employing someone to do this on a fixed term contract (or asking an existing employee to cover those hours/shift temporarily) is in no way discrimination. You have the legal right to return to your job after maternity leave, this should be the same job you left, or if this is not practical, a comparable job on the same terms and conditions of employment which would include similar hours, same salary etc. This page explains all you need to know.

I get that you don't get on with your manager and her comment about you 'probably' not coming back full-time is not nice or accurate, but it does sound from what she's said (and bearing in mind you are only hearing this second-hand so it may have become garbled) as though she's stuck to the rules, in that she's said to the cover person that it could become permanent in the future, implying it's not permanent now i.e. it's a temporary maternity cover, so she's acting correctly and no discrimination has taken place, although I suppose you could interpret the comment as harassment/trying to indirectly pressure you into not coming back - I don't think there's much to be gained from pursuing this as a grievance though as (a) she can just deny ever saying that (b) even if she admits she said it she'll probably claim to have just misunderstood your intentions or to have misspoken or similar.

I think maybe you could send her a polite passive aggressive email, perhaps cc-ing in HR, 'reminding' her that your intention is to return to work full-time on XX date as per your legal right to do so and you could link the page above or your work maternity leave policy if you have one. If she's then silly enough to give you further evidence that she doesn't want you back or replies saying she's already offered your job permanently to someone else, that would absolutely be worth pursuing and I'm sure HR would instantly correct her as they won't want a maternity discrimination case on their hands. But otherwise I think you need to sit tight, enjoy the rest of your pregnancy/baby and try not to stress, difficult as that is...

Thanks maxelly - that sounds like good advice!

Here some helpful links (if your employment is in the UK).

www.gov.uk/working-when-pregnant-your-rights

www.acas.org.uk/managing-your-employees-maternity-leave-and-pay/discrimination-because-of-pregnancy-and-maternity

The first link is what companies Must Do to support pregnant employees' rights (the government website). Second is ACAS, which is a public body between employees and their workplace, however the link is for workplace discrimination for pregnancy.

If you need legal advice, incase you want a tribunal (if you think your being discriminated against).

Here a link to LegalUtopia, where you can find lawyers near to you:
legalutopia.onelink.me/YGQA/65669488

Noticed there been a few posts like this today, so though share the links here as well. @maxelly That is also really good advice to talk to their manager about coming back on xx date, but also CCing HR so they have a copy of the message.

Normal and not discriminatory for the manager to arrange maternity cover.

If you had firm proof - not just hearsay - of her saying you’d “probably be part-time on return or not return at all", that’d be poor practice by your manager, but seems unlikely you could get proof.

Requesting a 1:1 meeting to discuss possible working patterns on your return seems unnecessary. If you want a specific working pattern that varies from your former pattern, or to retain your former working pattern, just notify her by email of your current plans, then closer to the time of your return seek to confirm your work pattern, again via email.

If you don’t think you have been adequately informed/ consulted about the changes at work, you could raise this in writing.