Returned from maternity leave to different job

[Johndenver]

I have been on maternity leave for 5 months and have come back to a totally different job.

I was previously managing 5 staff and was a project lead on quite a big ongoing project within the company.

There were two people with my job title however we both had very different roles. Whilst I was off my counterpart was promoted to a more senior position with better terms and was given a large chunk of what I previously did. I.e she was made the project lead and given a promotion with better salary etc.

Upon my return I have been informed that there has been a restructure and the staff that I previously managed have all been promoted to my level (in name only it seems). In actuality I have been demoted. Approximately 50% of my previous role has been awarded to my counterpart and the job that I will be doing is materially different to the job I did when I left.

I feel like I have been disadvantaged if not discriminated against for taking maternity leave. I have been at the company for over 10 years and was in quite a senior position until taking this time off. I intentionally took 5 months to ensure that I could return to my previous job. I didn't want to be sidelined for starting a family, which is exactly what I feel like has happened. I understood that the business doesn't stop as I am on maternity leave, but I thought I was protected by law against this kind of behaviour.

I was not consulted about any of the changes to the structure of my team and see this as a demotion in all but name. My responsibilities are probably 20% of what they were but my salary is the same.

Where do I stand and how can I get them to put this right? I am reluctant to cause a stink but believe my employer has acted unlawfully.

[ULA]

Hi Johndenver I have moved your thread to the Employment forum.

Given that you were off for 5 months then by my calculation you potentially returned within the first 26 weeks of maternity leave which is termed "oridnay maternity leave". If this is the case you have the right to return to the same job. In addition your pay and conditions must be the same as or better than if you had not gone on maternity leave.

It is potentially unfair dismissal and maternity discrimination if your employer says you cannot return to the same job or if they offer you a different job without a strong reason. They cannot offer you a different job if:

1. Your job still exists - i.e. they have given it to someone else.
2. Your job would still exist if you hadn’t gone on maternity leave.
3. The new job is not something you could do - not sure this is the case here.
4. The new job has worse conditions or pay than the job you did before you went on maternity leave.

I think you will need to go through the above 4 points and see if one or more apply to the situation you find yourself in. If so then you may need to consider raising this informally as a grievance or if that does not resolve the situation, take this down a formal grievence process.

If you have any further questions just come back to this thread