Flowerybeanbag are you around? Got a couple of urgent questions and I wondered if you could help!

[lookingforadvice]

Hi flowerybeanbag, you were a great help to me last week when I had been told I was at risk of redundancy and I wondered if you could help me out with a couple of queries?

Is it possible to put someone on maternity leave at risk of redundancy?

Can my employer legally ask me to keep the news that I am at risk of redundancy from the rest of my colleagues?

Thanks!

Hi again

Yes it is perfectly possible to put someone on maternity leave at risk of redundancy, however the fact that the woman is on maternity leave must not in any way be a reason for being placed at risk of redundancy, and women on maternity leave get preferential treatment in terms of available employment. If there is a suitable job anywhere in the organisation, the woman on maternity leave must be offered it over and above others.

With regard to the confidentiality thing, well yes, I suppose so, but how would that work - is it literally only your post that is at risk, rather than a general situation? In which case I would be raising my eyebrow and wondering why the woman on maternity leave was the only person involved.

If more people, surely it can't be a secret, realistically.