Being potentially made redundant after maternity leave

[Ozzy0103]

Hi,
I am writing this on behalf of a friend who works for local government.
She has recently returned to work following additional maternity leave and within the first week back was told her job - that was originally carried out by two people - was now being changed to a one person job and that they would have to apply for the position and take a test where the lowest scoring applicant will be made redundant.

She wasn't informed of any of the plans on her Keep in Touch days and was only informed on her first week back to work. I was under the impression that whilst an employer can make redundancies at any time, a person is entitled to be consulted even if they are absent on maternity leave. Is failure to consult a woman on maternity leave about redundancy is likely to be maternity discrimination? She was told they didn't want to bother her while she was off. Surely if she was informed while she was off she would have been given more time to prepare especially since her co-worker was already back at work?

If they had the plans in place while she was on maternity leave, shouldn't she have been consulted before her return?

The council has informed her that the job description hasn't changed for the role they have to take the interview and test for but she got hold of the original one and it's been totally re-written including an item with the other candidate's job role in it.
The timescale seems to be really quick so must have been planned before her return without consultation.
I have been reading on a maternity website that if you are made redundant after returning to work in order to avoid the duty to offer suitable alternative work to women on maternity leave or you are dismissed or made redundant because of changes to your work during your maternity leave or for reasons related to your maternity leave, you should get legal advice as you may still have a claim for automatic unfair dismissal and/or maternity discrimination.

Please could I have some thoughts on this please? I suffered similarly after my return to work three years ago and am completely unhappy in my role but was too scared to fight it so I was hoping to give my friend some accurate information.
Many thanks,

[mariefab]

Re: Being potentially made redundant after maternity leave

The first thing that your friend needs to evidence is the date that the decision to reduce 2 jobs to 1 was made. Because if it wasn't until her maternity leave ended discrimination is going to be impossible to prove.
I wouldn't suggest asking directly, I'd look at the dates that any relevant documents were created. e.g. new role description.