Refusal of secondment

[Coley125]

A friend of mine is about to return from maternity leave after 12 months. Her role has been covered for this time by another team member who is acting up. She has applied and been successful in a 12 months project role in the same department with an upgrade in pay. Her original manager has also moved over to this project. However the department manager has informed her that she cannot support a secondment due to capacity on the team and she is needed in her original role. She has also been informed that if she wishes to take it then she will have to resign from her original role and take the fixed term position. Is this correct is this right does she have any grounds to do this she has 16 years service does this mean after the 12 months she would forfeit her 16 years of redundancy any help would be appreciated as this seems discriminatory. Also it is in policy that the organisation endeavours to support secondments from a development point of view. Any help will be appreciated

[Coley125]

Just to add the project team is made up of supported secondments from other departments in the organisation

[ULA]

Sorry I have got some questions that it would be good to get an answer to.

You mention a policy that refers to supporting secondments, does that policy set out any guidance on the process for secondments, such as continous employment, what happens at the end of the secondment etc?

is there a requirement for an individual to get approval from the department manager to apply for a secondment because of the potential issue of capacity?