Applying for promotion while on maternity leave

Snakey

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Or it could just be that they both were the best candidates...

You mean they were so far ahead of their peers that they should have been promoted the year before, but they were given unfair appraisals which didn't reflect this because they were about to go off on maternity leave?

It's possible (albeit risky - pregnant employees have the same protection as ones who've just had a baby), but whether the starting position was fair or unfair you still have the credibility issue of just how much a person's performance can have improved over a period in which they did not set foot in the office.