Help - think I've been demoted whilst on m/leave!

[lechatnoir]

I'm on M/leave and due to return to work in March still within ordinary leave and following a return to work meeting today, feel like I've been demoted

I run a lettings department working Monday - Thursday 9 til 5pm earning a basic salary of £35k plus commission (£28k for 08/09) so total earnings c.£63k. I requested Tuesday working from home 10-3pm & a laptop but otherwise expected to return to the same job, same hours etc save for an appropriate salary adjustment in view of working 3 hours a week less.

However, in my absence they have promoted the senior negotiator and given her half my job including day-to-day management of the lettings negotiators & marketing! They reckon this will fit with my 'reduced working week' and now I'm not managing the letting negotiators (who earn the commission!) I should go on a fixed salary - they suggested £50k. I've told them I feel like I've been demoted & rejected the salary but they've given me a poncy new director title so dismiss any demotion talk & have said they will review my salary & come back to me . I'm not against the idea of a fixed salary per se as the security would be good, but very conscious of the fact that if I stayed on my old salary & terms my OTE for 2010 is £70k & best I can ever see them offering a fixed salary is £55k.

Can I reject their pay proposals & insist I stay on my old pay structure of basic & commission? How can I claim my old job back when they've already given half of it away? Can they rescind their agreement to me working from home 1 day if I reject their proposals even though the 2 are not (IMO) related?
It's a small company so no HR dep or Union - just me & the bosses thrashing it out . I've been with them 10 years (including 1 previous M/Leave) and love the job/company so don't want to fall out (plus could never get the same pay/hours elsewhere) but really feel like their taking the piss but don't really know what to do or how to progress this amicably. Well done if you got this far

Any ideas?
LCN

bumping for you

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Sorry to hear that. I was demoted on my return from mat leave - they tried to give my assistant some of my management duties! It went through a series of grievance meetings, appeals etc, then they eventually rescinded. The long and short of it is I was made redundant and am now suing my ex employer, it all comes back to when I stood up for myself as I was not happy at being demoted, then it was held against me. They took the first opportunity they could to make me redundant.

I'm sorry I'm not helping much with your questions but you do need to be aware that if they feel strong enough, they can make things difficult. I never thought I would be in this position, just from standing up for my rights as a woman returning to work. I think you need to think carefully about any action you take, only you knows your employer and how much you enjoy your job (I did too!). If they are in any way snidey or bear enormous grudges then you could be in the position I am in. However, I wouldn't have done it any different.

Hard to believe in this day and age some bosses think they can get away with it, but the sex discrimination laws are there to protect us and my God I hope they come good for me!! Best of luck. BTW, mine was a small company too, in which I held a senior position, with no Union assistance unfortunately.

What is it that makes you feel demoted? Is it because you are not managing the staff you were before? Promoting someone else doesn't necessarily mean you have been demoted.

If you are only on maternity leave for 6 months you are entitled to go back to the same job on the same terms and conditions, but as you are requesting a change to your terms and conditions it's not quite as simple. You are entitled to request flexible working and your employer must consider it and if they want to reject it, give appropriate business reasons why. Adjusting your job and removing some of your responsibilities to allow them to meet your own request for reduced hours isn't necessarily unreasonable, depending on the circumstances.

When you requested reduced hours and homeworking, were the discussions based on the exact same job? As I said, your employer must give decent business reasons for refusing, and if they agreed your request based on your original job and are now changing your job after agreeing your request, those changes should have been part of the original negotiation, meaning that if they said to agree your request your job would need to be changed removing x,y and z responsibilities, you would have had the opportunity to demonstrate why that wasn't necessary and discuss how you would be able to do your original job perfectly well within those hours.

In terms of your pay, even assuming you were happy with the adjusted job content, I've no idea whether commission-based pay would be appropriate for the content of the new job or not. If it's not that that bothers you and in fact fixed pay would be fine, I'd suggest you continue negotiating hard for a fixed salary that is at a higher level.

The bottom line is you can certainly insist on returning to your old job and your old terms and conditions. Similarly they don't have to agree your flexible working request either, as long as they can provide business reasons why that request can't be accommodated. That's why I ask on what basis was the flexible working request discussed and agreed.

Oh dear Wedgie sincerely hope I don't end up the same

Thanks for your helpful response FBB. Hoping if i give a bit more detail you may be able to further clarify my position...
Most important I think is that I have actually had more than 6 months off

WRT my return & flexible working request, I sent an email last month asking to get together to discuss my return ASAP so I could arrange childcare accordingly & at this stage proposed a start date, requested working from home 1 day and that day be 3 hours shorter with hours made up during the evenings, plus a laptop & blackberry. As far as I was concerned I would be doing the same job on same pay as I would be working the same hours per week.

The next discussion was in the meeting I had earlier this week and they then told me about the internal promotions, confirmed my start day was OK & that I could work 1 shorter day from home and then told me they were putting me on a fixed salary. When they discussed the various roles I expressed concern that there seemed little left for me to do & also lack of clarity on certain tasks so asked for job specs for both me & the newly promoted lettings manager. I also told them that in view of my current & previous salaries and OTE going forward I didn't accept £50k as a reasonable fixed salary.

So, my request for flexible working & their change to my role & salary have all been bunched together to (IMO) suit their needs. Knowing my bosses & speaking to my team, I'm certain this isn't a malicious or willful attempt to remove or demote me but them (wrongly) assuming I wouldn't come back to work (this is my 2nd ML with them) and so promoting a deserving Neg to manager & sharing out my old job between the team with my boss taking on the extra seemed an obvious solution & probably would have worked well if I had chosen not to come back . So when I confirmed my return they probably panicked but helped because I wanted to work from home which to them is essentially a day off (not what I intended BTW!)

Not sure if any further detail will help clarify or if anyone even gets this far but thanks for listening to me vent & any help much appreciated.
LCN

Lechat noir, can you clarify what leave you have had...

If you took more than 6 months maternity leave (not including any annual leave you may have taken), then you have returned outside Ordinary Maternity Leave and you don't have the same rights anyway. You are not entitled to return to the same job if it's not practical for your employer to allow you to do so, and must be offered something suitable on no less favourable terms and conditions.

The fact that you are requesting a change to those terms and conditions yourself anyway also makes the position a bit less clear in terms of what you are entitled to.

It doesn't really sound as though you have actually been demoted, and I think given what you have described as the reasons for what's happened, which all sound very plausible, it's more a case of negotiation with your employer. They are obviously happy you are returning and are trying to accommodate you despite misguidedly assuming you may not want to come back.

Have you had the job specs yet? Did they clarify anything? I think clarification in terms of responsibilities, boundaries and accountability is key to making this work, and I think you are right to push for an appropriate fixed salary as well.