Maternity Discrimination Claim

[OakElmAsh]

I'm a director in a large multi-national. Recently had an opening for a senior management role, the kind of opening that comes up once in a blue moon, We decided to promote from within the management team rather than advertising externally as we felt there were a number of people who could do the job. Went through a 3 stage interview process with 5 candidates, eliminating as we went, 2 in final round, chose 1.

The candidate that was runner up returned about 4 months previous from Mat Leave. She is now claiming maternity discriminaiton.

This is where I think I fucked up - after the interview process, I sat down with all unsuccesful candidates, and gave them detailled feedback, and reccomendations of how they could improve or what kind of things they could be doing to prepare for this kind of role in future. When I sat down with the runner-up, I explained that the differentiating factor between her and the other candidate was a set of skills & experience they had gathered on a huge project they were given in the last year, and that my reccomendation was to jump on any opportunity like that that might come up going forward.

She is now claiming that, had she not been on Mat Leave, she would have been in the running for that project (true), and she would have been as good if not better than the other person (possible but unprovable). She basically thinks because she wasn't there for the opportunity, the benefits of having done that project shouldn't have been taken into account in the selection for the promotion.

Within my peer leadership group, everyone thinks she's on a hiding to nothing. I'm still worried though - Is there something I'm missing here ? HR (part of our company but based elsewhere in Europe) are investigating and staying quiet for now.
From what I've understood she's gone to ACAS who have advised her to go through our internal greivance process before doing anything else

For clarity if it matters, everyone mentioned are women - I have kids (older), the succesful candidate doesn't

You can’t undo what you said. Make sure you write down now as much as you can remember of what you actually said. The candidate will have heard what she wanted so it’s important before any grievance investigation starts that you have a record of your recollection.

You were quite correct to advise the successful candidate had skills and experience, she and the other candidates did not have. How and when they developed these skills is less important.

The issue is these were internal candidates and you contextualised the acquisition of the skills and experience to a specific project that this candidate could not be a part of due to mat leave.

I think ultimately you will be ok if she lodges a grievance as the decision was based on skills and experience. It will be stressful going through a grievance process, it always is for all parties. Just stick to the facts of what differentiated the successful candidate.

I would also wait for the outcome of any grievance or as a recommendation to find a way to give her the opportunity to develop the skills and experience for next time.

I would get some advice, as much for reassurance as anything else. As long as the interview process was fair, you should be ok.
It doesn't sound like you said anything wrong - you very much were supportive of her working in a similar project in the future. The successful candidate obviously gained experience whilst the other lass was on leave, which has led to her promotion. It maybe unfortunate, but not discrimination.
She sounds like she just expected to walk into the promotion, despite not being the strongest candidate.

I think @Kirschcherries hit the nail on the head - I didn't need to give as much info as I did about the specifics of how we differeciated the candidates. The interviews were all documented, scored on the same criteria, and done by 3 leaders, 2 of whom are senior to me, so hopefully that process is watertight.

The candidate who's raising the grievance was always a little competitive with the one who was successful, and she's also finding her return from mat leave tough going - some organisational change happened while she was away, and she's not a fan, and seems to resent that decisions had to be taken without her input while she was gone. Feels like this is a crystalisation of all this

The good news is from what you have said the selection process was fair. Focus on that if she does lodge a grievance.

When giving feedback, particularly to someone you know, it’s very easy to over explain in trying to be helpful. We have all done it as it comes from a good place.

I think you are right why the candidate has reacted this way. It is tough for women returning from mat leave, in my experience some do struggle.

I am sure this will all work out.

She could have taken on these opportunities before she went on maternity leave? If she'd done that she'd have been in a more favourable position?

I doubt that even her grievance will be upheld, let alone a discrimination case. If the successful candidate had been a man, it might have been rather different but she isn't. Hold onto the fact that the role was given to the person with the skills and experience to do the job.

This was a different & bigger project than we usually had, so not really.