Maternity return issues

[OntheUp]

I went on maternity leave in 2014. At the time, I was at risk of redundancy due to my office being closed down. At the end of my maternity leave (6 months) I returned to work in a new office 50 miles away.

Slightly foolishly, I did not apply for promotion before going on maternity leave (I was too exhausted after some huge projects and with the pregnancy). Now, I’d like to be promoted and everyone agrees that I am ready for promotion and technically am eligible but am struggling because I have not met a key KPI for the year. This is mainly due to my maternity leave in that I am a project manager and in the month prior to going on maternity leave no-one allocated me projects and in the 4-6 weeks after return, no-one allocated me projects – it takes a while to settle back in. Does my employer have any obligation to ensure that this does not happen to maternity returners (they do not exercise any oversight at all on work allocation – essentially they believe if you are good you get work and if you are not you won’t and eventually this will become obvious and either they will fire you or you will leave). But it is a real problem in terms of progression for maternity returners. Promotions cases are only heard once per year.

A second question is that our Head Office (100 miles away) recruited a number of people while I was on maternity leave. Did I have any rights to be offered those jobs given that I was at risk of redundancy? Or because it was 100 miles away could they argue that they did not have to offer these to me as it was not "suitable alternative employment" due to being 100 miles away (even though I was transferring 50 anyway)?

Thanks for any help.

[teaboy2]

Re: Maternity return issues

I went on maternity leave in 2014. At the time, I was at risk of redundancy due to my office being closed down. At the end of my maternity leave (6 months) I returned to work in a new office 50 miles away.

Slightly foolishly, I did not apply for promotion before going on maternity leave (I was too exhausted after some huge projects and with the pregnancy). Now, I’d like to be promoted and everyone agrees that I am ready for promotion and technically am eligible but am struggling because I have not met a key KPI for the year. This is mainly due to my maternity leave in that I am a project manager and in the month prior to going on maternity leave no-one allocated me projects and in the 4-6 weeks after return, no-one allocated me projects – it takes a while to settle back in. Does my employer have any obligation to ensure that this does not happen to maternity returners (they do not exercise any oversight at all on work allocation – essentially they believe if you are good you get work and if you are not you won’t and eventually this will become obvious and either they will fire you or you will leave). But it is a real problem in terms of progression for maternity returners. Promotions cases are only heard once per year.

A second question is that our Head Office (100 miles away) recruited a number of people while I was on maternity leave. Did I have any rights to be offered those jobs given that I was at risk of redundancy? Or because it was 100 miles away could they argue that they did not have to offer these to me as it was not "suitable alternative employment" due to being 100 miles away (even though I was transferring 50 anyway)?

Thanks for any help.

I think the best approach would be to take in to account you were on maternity leave, therefore KPI should be calculated based on the work you did when you were not on Maternity leave and not include the maternity leave period at all in their calculations.

As for suitable alternative, well if HO is 100 miles away then that's not really a suitable alternative is it?! unless of course you only live halfway between HO and your main place of work (i.e. 50 miles from HO)

YOur best bet would be to bring this up informally with your HR manager and express your concern you are being treated less favorably as a result of your Maternity Leave period being included when calculating KPI and are therefore possibly going to miss out on promotion as a result. Where as if you had not been pregnant and on maternity leave your KPI would be well above the requirements for promotion. In effect it may constitute indirect sexual discrimination! But make clear you wish to resolve and discuss the matter informally.

[OntheUp]

Re: Maternity return issues

Hi teaboy - sorry for the late response and thanks for your comments.

Actually my KPI's are pro-rated for the actual maternity leave. What does not happen however is that you are not given any help on return to work to get back up to speed. Accordingly I had almost no work on Month 1, was at half capacity in month 2 and was finally at capacity in month 3 of my return. On average therefore my KPI result is 50% of what it should be over 3 months since return.

I'd accept you could say that HO is not a suitable alternative. I think I need to find the precise legislation and read. But then to be fair the office I am transferring to now is presumably not a suitable alternative either or we would not have been offered redundancy. I don't know whether this changes things. And quite a few people did transfer to HO rather than office 2 so it seems that a few did feel that it was a suitable alternative.

So the main point seems to be whether an employer has any obligation to assist a maternity returner to access good quality work. If not, then my maternity for all practical precludes promotion for the return period whatever the actual policy says about being eligible and I'm not clear whether that is fair/discriminatory.

[teaboy2]

Re: Maternity return issues

Legally, when returning to work from maternity leave, you should be returning to the same role, and duties connected to your role. So workload would fall under duties. So you could argue that you were treated less favourably when you returned to work from maternity leave as you were given little to no work on your 1st month of your returning, on the 2nd month of your return you were only given half of your workload and only on your 3rd month of return was your work load back to normal levels and as a direct result of this unfair and unnecessary phased return (work load wise) your KPI result was directly effected and at 50% of the level it would have been at if you had been given a full work load right from the first day of your return, and the result of this has resulted in you missing out on promotion! That may likely actually be deemed indirect sexual discrimination and you need to point that out to HR.

Regarding suitable alternative employment. Well it all depends on travel distance and cost of travel and duration of travel, would it be suitable alternative to expect you to have to travel 2hrs to work and same back again when it may have only took you 30minutes previously? No it would not as the duration is unreasonable expectation, and so would the costs of fuel and additional wear and tear on your car (or additional train/bus ticket costs). Whilst some maybe ok with the additional costs and travel time, it may not be ok for you. So if its not suitable to your finances or family life then its not a suitable alternative and redundancy would be the only option! But ultimately its for you to decide.

As per the HO recruiting 100 people when you were at risk of redundancy, then yes you should have been offered one of those vacancies or invited to apply for them!

You may also what to have a look at this that was posted this morning - http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...051#post551051