On maternity leave and being threatened with redundancy

[LiquoriceT]

I'm on maternity leave and have been told today that my job is at risk and i have to justify why they shouldn't get rid of it/me.

Has anyone been in this situation? Does anyone know what my rights are? I'm due to return on 20th August and have been at the job for approx 4 years.

I'd just asked for flexible working and got told this instead.

Thanks to anyone who can help, I'm a bit anxious at the moment though I know I'll almost certainly get redundancy pay.

You have some special protection while on maternity leave. Basically where there are several people competing for one job in a redundancy situation, the woman on maternity leave is entitled to get that post without competition.

You'll still need to demonstrate that you are suitably qualified and experienced for that particular post, but you won't need to compete with anyone else.

Try not to worry, but I'll google the relevant legislation so that you can add it to your justification. I work in HR and even some of my colleagues weren't aware of this protection.

Here you go LiquoriceT, it's fairly lengthy but this is the official stuff, there's a paragraph if you scroll down about redundancy during maternity leave.

As llareggub says, they can't make you compete for a suitable role if there is one, and you certainly shouldn't have to justify why they shouldn't get rid of you!

Just to add though, what is defined as a 'suitable role' will be one on your previous terms and conditions, ie your previous hours. You have no right to be offered one on reduced or flexible hours if that's what you now want. What you need to do is make sure you get offered one on whatever basis you worked previously, then once that's in the bag, put in a flexible working request based on the new role.

'she is entitled to be offered (before that contract ends) a suitable alternative vacancy, where one is available'

Thanks, I don't believe there's any new role actually available. I will read the info you've posted -think it'd come up from an initial google check. I think I may need legal advice full stop.

If there's not any role available that could possibly be suitable for you, then you are redundant. But if they are saying you must justify your existence, it sounds as though there might be a role you could have, in which case you should.

That link is the official one, so send that to your employer if you need to. As llareggub says, many employers aren't aware of the rule. It goes against lots of the normal principles of employment law, so it's not unusual for even HR people never to have heard of it.