No promotion due to maternity leave...

[Naetha]

Hi folks, can I ask a quick bit of advice?

I've worked for my company as an Environmental Consultant for nearly 4 years now, and have had "issues" with gaining promotion (I believe through no fault of my own, just the company's desire to keep everyone down!). I started a thread on it last october when I was due for my appraisal. The thread is [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?topicid=2310&threadid=399555#8129425 here].

Well, at that time I was 27 weeks pregnant, my gorgeous DS is now 5 months old.

I got a letter in December 07 informing me that the annual salary review had been completed and I'd received a (roughly inflationary) pay rise, that would be effective from when I return to work from maternity leave. Again, no mention of promotion.

First of all, can they defer a pay rise to when I return from maternity leave? I thought that was counted as discriminating against me because I'm on maternity leave?

Also because of the way that promotion in my company works, there's only an opportunity for promotion (so they say) once a year in January. Now obviously I didn't get it this january, due to being on maternity leave, and there is nothing to say I will get it when I return to work next January.

There was no reason in my appraisal not to promote me (it was recommended by my line manager). Where do I stand? I don't want to be walked over, but don't want to be overly pushy.

Sorry link fixed:

here

Don't know but sounds (bad word) to me...

Oh meant to say as well (sorry pregnancy brain!) that the company has decided to move the office that I work from from north Leeds (11 miles and 25 minutes from where I live) to south Leeds (18 miles and well over an hour from where I live).

This is going to completely screw everything up when I return. My nursery is near my home, so it's going to be very tough to drop DS off at 7:30 (which costs extra, usual start time is 8am) work 7.5 hours a day and be back to pick him up at 6 (again, very latest - any later is charged at £1 a minute).

Any idea what I can do about this? Do I have any rights?

Sounds crap for you. As I understand it you should be treated with the same rights as if you were there working in the office, so the implementation of pay rises and promotions should be the same as for any other staff. But someone who knows more about the law might be along soon.

What sort of maternity pay are you on? It does sound a little suspect, but if you are on SMP then that isn't set by the company as it's a fixed amount, if you are on a % of your previous pay then I would have thought you should have recieved the pay rise when it was given to everyone else (proportional to your reduced pay). I don't know about the promotion, but there's nothing you can do about the move. You should get whatever deal everyone else affected gets (or doesn't as the case may be). My personal experience is that promotions only come when you apply for a new role with new responsibilities, so I couldn't say anything useful about that.

Neatha- It is illegal to defer your pay rise until you start back. They are meant to do it the same time as everyone else's. In addition, they have to backdate the rise into your maternity pay (if you are on SMP, it would probably only affect the period where you are on 90% of pay), even if that means you effectively get the rise early. It's a weird wrinkle in employment law.

Regarding the promotion, I haven't read your other thread, but you say that the company wants to keep everyone down. If your treatment is unfair, but not because of your pregnancy (or other protected characteristic, like race) then you cannot claim. If, however, you believe it is because you were on maternity leave, you could potentially sue for sex discrimination. Bear in mind, though, that realistically you would need to leave your job. You can't sue for discrimination and expect working relationships to go on as before. If you are concerned, I would suggest that you sit down with your boss and/or HR either now or when you get back and explain your concerns as a first step.

Re the relocation, it depends what it says in your contract whether they can make you move. However, even if your contract does not allow for relocation, it is redundancy if you do not want to go. Unfortunately, statutory redundancy payments are very low so, unless your company has a good enhanced scheme, there is not a lot you can do about this one.

Hope that helps.

It is illegal to defer pay rise as Ribena says. However I would be inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one, chances are quite high that they have no idea this is illegal, and no idea that they also have to rework your SMP. So I think you do need to challenge this, but not in an overly confrontational way, at least not to start with.

I'll try and find you a link in a sec about pay rises on maternity leave.

With the promotion, I have refreshed my memory with the other thread. I think we identified quite clearly reasons why you had not been promoted previously, but I see that the outcome was that your manager was going to recommend you for a promotion in January this year. Did this happen? As this was a specific thing sorted out last time, it's perfectly reasonable for you to ask for feedback on why this didn't happen. You being on maternity leave is not a valid reason.

I would recommend you have a meeting with your manager to discuss these issues, to make him/her aware of the pay rise issue, and to ask for feedback about promotion. Take along the notes of your appraisal meeting where it was discussed before. I think you should have this discussion now rather than wait until you get back, otherwise you are going to worry about it and work yourself up about it when it could actually be resolved quite easily. At least give them the opportunity to do that.

With the relocation, if the office is moving then the office is moving, there's not an awful lot you can do about it. I would suggest you consider a flexible working request to try and make this a bit easier for you.

I seem to be posting this a lot recently but it is good, working families factsheet, has stuff on promotion and pay rises during maternity leave, and is very readable. Here is something very official from DWP about the SMP thing.

Here is some stuff about flexible working which you should have a look at.

Thanks for your replies

I'm only on SMP, so it only would have affected the 6 weeks on 90% pay.

I suppose what I'm wary of, is them using maternity leave as another way of keeping me down an extra year on top of the year off.

The way promotions work in my company are fairly simple - you start at probationary C1 (Consultant level 1), then move to C2 and C3, then Senior Consultant level 1 (SC1), SC2, SC3 etc, then to the managerial levels. The promotions are given when you achieve aspects of your development plan.

I joined as a graduate at C1 level in August 2004, and was promoted to C2 level in April 2005. It was agreed between myself and my then manager that I should be aiming for C3 level in October 2006, this then got changed to April 2007, however in December 2006 I moved departments in a move that was very much encouraged by all my managers to an equivalent role that suited me and them better. Because of this, my promotion was delayed by another 6 months until October 2007, as despite achieving all my objectives and having a positive appraisal, it was decided that I would need time to acclimatise to my new role. However, then the company policy changed and promotions were only considered in January of each year, so it was deferred until January 2008, by which time I was on maternity leave. I believe I should have been promoted then, regardless of whether I was on maternity leave or not.

At the end of the day, I have been doing the work equivalent of a C3 level for almost two years now, and to be totally honest in my last 6 months there, despite being pregnant I was doing SC1 levels of work in terms of the types of projects I managed and client work I undertook.

I don't want to be sidetracked in my career because of my choice to have a child, and I don't see why I should be walked over because of the attitudes of my managers (benignly sexist and chauvinistic). One problem I have is that there are no equivalents in my situation - my company has a very high staff turnover, and all those that joined at a similar position and time to me have left for other companies.

Sorry if I sound very whingy, I just want to make sure I get the most out of this, and don't let them sidetrack me!

I think I might have a chat with HR (who are generally very helpful and certainly child-friendly) about the situation. I'm just scared of jeopardising anything by going above my (totally unapproachable) line manager's head.

THanks for the links FBB

Naetha however unapproachable you may feel he/she is, I would strongly advise speaking to him/her rather than HR, or at least before HR.

HR are of course lovely , but if you want a promotion you need to get your manager onside, and you are not going to do that by (as he/she will see it) whinging to HR about him/her.

I strongly recommend you have that meeting with your manager, ask about what happened in January this year (if you were correct in saying that it was promised then, which you said in your other thread). It's all very well you saying to us that you don't see why you should be walked over, but if you are not prepared to approach your manager and have a difficult conversation, that's probably why you are being walked over. I'm not saying that's right or fair, obviously, but really, if you want to move forward in your career, take on more responsibility, more money, a promotion, you are going to have to deal with difficult people and difficult situations, starting with your boss.

However lovely and sympathetic HR are, and however much they may be able to tell your boss what the law says, they can't improve your relationship with him/her, only you can do that.

Have the meeting with your boss, tell him/her about the payrise issue, nicely, in a 'you may well not be aware' kind of way. Ask about the promotion, say it was promised this January, show the appraisal where you discussed it, and ask what happened? See what reason you are given, then you can work out how best to challenge it if that's appropriate. Don't make HR ask that question for you. They can, and they might, but it's really not going to improve your boss's opinion of you if they do.

Flowerybeanbag - you say that it is illegal to defer a pay rise, however the "Rights during maternity leave" factsheet states:

"Any annual increment or pay rise that you are due must be paid to you on your return to work. It does not have to be paid whilst you are on maternity leave, as you are not entitled to your normal pay at that time."

Where do I stand?

It means that at the time you are not receiving any pay, they don't have to actually pay you anything.

But if everyone else gets a pay rise during the maternity leave period, yours must be dated from the same time, even if you are not receiving any money at that time; and your SMP must be recalculated.

Sorry to go on, I just don't want to get caught out by clever wording.

I have a letter dated 19th December 2007 (my Maternity leave started 17th December 2007) stating "the annual salary review has been completed and that your salary will be increased to £*** per annum and will be effective from when you return to work from maternity leave in line with any changes made to your contractual hours"

Does this mean that come December 2008 (when the next pay review takes place) I should get another pay increase (assuming the rest of my co-workers do) despite the fact that my first pay rise hasn't been effective yet?

If you go back to work before the next pay rise, you should go back on your new pay as effective 19.12.07. Using the phrase 'effective when you go back to work' is clumsy and a bit misleading but is unlikely to be deliberate 'clever wording'. The increase is effective last December, but you just won't actually benefit from it until you are earning money again.

If you don't go back to work until after the next increase, then you should get that as well, yes.

By way of an example, if your salary was, say, £20,000 before last December, and you had an increase of £1,000 to £21,000, then your salary is now £21,000 even though you are not receiving it. If you go back to work before December, you will be on £21,000.

If you don't go back until December, and everyone gets (say) another £1,000, then your new salary then will be £22,000.

Having said that, if your salary review (or a portion of it) is performance-related, and you haven't been at work for a year, it would be reasonable of them to defer your increase for a few months to give them a chance to assess your performance, and you a chance to prove how good you are, then back-date it.

All this is separate from the need to recalculate SMP which they may need drawing to their attention.

I've been wondering whether or not to post here....

I think my firm has a similar promotion policy to yours - it is a combination of time served and competency attainment. Because of the project nature of work the competency attainment can be subjective - different people get different opportunities/different experience etc and are evaluated by different people but for promotion decisions need to be benchmarked against a common competency framework. Appraisals are conducted by senior management - some of whom are good at it and some of whom aren't so good. A particular problem that arises with the not so good appraisers is a lack of common understanding as to what the outcome of appraisal discussions is, which may be what has happened in your case. This is particularly the case if the appraiser knows the appraisee will be upset by the decision (eg not to promote) and then to make the conversation easier will beat around the bush a bit. I'm not saying this is what happened to you - your appraiser may have been completely clear with you. however, if it is not his decision to make he should not have made it - a recommendation to promote can be interpreted in many ways including, as already mentioned, postponement of the not promoted discussion.

I think you need to arrange a meeting with your appraiser and ask him why you were not promoted and what you need to do to get promoted. Be as unemotional as possible and make sure you don't let him fob you off with anything vague - you need to get him pinned down with specifics. If he can't/won't tell you (eg because it's not his decision), then you need to ask him who will be able to tell you and arrange a meeting with them.

Be prepared though to not like what you hear - their perception of your performance and abilities may differ from your own - however, until you know exactly what the issue(s) is you can't begin to deal with them (or decide if you even want to).

This approach should give you the ability to move forward and stop bearing grudges/resentment (not that I'm suggesting you are) - if you do end up feeling bitter about your treatment it will spoil the rest of your maternity leave and will definitely not help your future promotion prospects.

Good luck.

Flowerybeanbag - do you have a link for a factsheet for women whose babies are due after this Oct?

I'm off on mat leave @ christmas and already my boss has made some glaring errors in assuming that I am not entitled to still acrue holidays etc...and I'm due a pay rise in Jan...

thank you

Poorbuthappy I can do better than that, here is a link to the list of all the workingfamilies factsheets. The one I linked to earlier is the 'rights in maternity leave' one, you'll see there are two, one for before Oct and one for after. Some of the others might be useful as well.

You are a star!

Thank you...

Thank you for your reply MrsWobble - it sounds like our workplaces have a very similar modus operandi!

I was all fired up to arrange a date for a catch-up with my boss, but I couldn't get him to commit, but I shall persevere, as like FBB said - I don't want this hanging over me.

My DH is going to work with me on making sure I get out of the meeting everything I want

Do you mean promotion or pay increase? Surely promotions involve some kind of interview as they mean a new job.