I'm incredibly stressed out.....grrr

[emy72]

Hi,

I've posted this before but there has been developments and I need to vent badly! Thanks in advance for bearing with me...

My (very large) employer, displaced my team when I was on maternity leave (I still am!).

They offered all of my colleagues, some of whom I know very well/have worked with them for years and years alternative positions to apply for and HR consultations (where do you want your career to go type).

I was never offered any of those, I didn't even know what was going on until very recently...

All alternative jobs have now gone to colleagues. I heard through the grapevine that one was moving on (found something else already), I applied and was told in an email that I wasn't suitable, no feedback.

I protested with HR and was told that they'd sort something out with me when I get back.

Now I know they won't make me redundant but they will try and push me onto something naff that I don't want to do/have very little experience of. They won't reduce my pay but possibly will try and get away with making me accept something totally different from what I was doing before...

Do I have the right to say no? I am fuming as I feel they have denied me the right to the other jobs which were the best fit/alternative for me, and was fully qualified to do. Now I am stuck.

Would appreciate some advice. I have read that I have a right to a similar job but I guess they could argue that they are paying me the same so in that way it would be a similar job? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr why do they do these things?

If your on mat leave for over 6 months they have to offer you a suitable job but not necessary the job you were doing before.

How long have you been off on mat leave for? How long do you have left?

You may be able to prove what they have done is discriminatory they certainly haven't communicated well. However.

I believe they are allowed to choose people on the basis of "available" for jobs. If the need someone to start ASAP waiting 9 months for someone to come back off Mat leave will make them unsuitable for the job.

Similar is a very loose term. Most office jobs of the same level and difficulty (requiring general quals) would be considered "similar".

In short. Yes you have the right to say no to other jobs they offer you. Then they have the right to end your contract and not pay redundancy.

Well fair enough.

However when the jobs came out I was already 8 months into my mat leave and they never really asked me whether I was interested in applying I would have come back earlier.

I also then contacted the person in charge of the new roles when the vacancy came out, to say that I was going to apply and was happy to come back earlier if he wanted to interview me. He never even bothered to talk to me.

So I have been trying to get in there.

It's not really as you describe in my field as I was employed to perform a very specific and highly specialised function and the function has been completely disbanded and therefore hybrid jobs created to allow those people in my team to reintegrate in a half half sort of function (effectively half retraining).

So what I am trying to say is, that having missed that opportunity, I will have a lot of difficulty trying to find something I can do. This is why I feel so aggrieved.

I know that if I accept a totally different role I will solve the problem for them short term, but will set myself up to fail big time. This is what I am most worried about.