Is this Maternity Discrimination?

Tara1981

Hi,

Hoping someone might have been in a similar situation or offer advice.

I've just returned to work after a year of Maternity Leave. In April 2016, I requested to be promoted based on additional responsibilities over the prior 3 years I'd been given and most importantly successful work on three of our big strategic accounts which meant a lot of money for the company. This was agreed by my boss at the time who wrote in my online development portal that I was greatly valued, long standing excellent reputation/work and he supported this and would work with my new line manager for a development plan to be put in place and for it to go through.

That all changed in October 2016 when I told the company I was pregnant. In the next reward cycle, December 2016 I was told that despite my old line manager, new line manager and UK HR all agreeing the promotion the US had pushed back saying they wanted to see more project based work. There is no reporting line to the US and I had done this type of work previously. After much discussion with my new line manager (during which he started the discussion off at expressing his own frustration at not being promoted to director level), we agreed on a project that I should work on to reach this goal, this was worked on Dec-May and presented to the UK and US teams at the end of May. In April 17 I went off on maternity leave. THREE weeks later my colleague, same level, worked on a similar less complex project got promoted to the position. The job was not advertised externally or internally. I only found out about it as she had called me asking me if I'd also got it! I raised this with my new line manager who reassured me that when I return from Maternity Leave that an appropriate plan would be put in place in order for me to also achieve this. I also have this in writing from him as well, again in my online development portal.

I returned to work 2 weeks ago, last week I had my 'Return to Work' meeting, my new line manager took no notes, I was asked to sign no form etc, usually this sort of thing I was of the understanding is usually documented. At the end of the meeting he asked me if I had any questions and I asked again about my wish to work towards this title and if he could work with me to put a plan in writing together. He got very defensive and said "I am not willing to put anything in writing, you need to speak to HR about that'. He then went onto say "You know, sometimes it's better not to put your head about the parapet, and stay under the radar" and my personal favorite...."If I did give you this I could make your life really difficult with everything you have going on, for example I could ask you to do this report and analysis and you'd have to do it because that's your job now" to which I replied that I'd been doing that type of work for four years already....the meeting ended abruptly, I was polite throughout. He had got annoyed with me earlier when I questioned one of the FY19 goals and I wonder if it was as a result of this. Despite the fact that I had backed down, all I was asking was clearer definition of what was expected of us, it's a lot of analytical work that he doesn't know how to do and I don't think he realizes how much is involved it's also never been our responsibility to do this type of work previously, the people who's job it is get compensated greatly for it every quarter, of which we do not get. I had said at the end that of course I'm very willing to do it. I've been working in that department at the company for 12 years, with excellent reputation and consistently good feedback every review. He started managing our team 18 months ago having never managed before. My colleague told me that whilst I was away he's had several arguments with her and the other lady in my team and comes across as a teacher in how he talks to you, this was reflected during a team conference call I was on last week where he'd become annoyed when my colleague said that she couldn't do something that evening as she was on PTO and he was very bullish in his response saying that it was unacceptable several times...despite the goal not needing to be achieved until September.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do? I have a meeting with HR tomorrow, Monday morning, but the reputation at my company is if you do go speak to HR, they will just ask if you want to raise a grievance and if you do it'll create bad feeling and you can kiss your career goodbye as you'll be seen as a trouble maker, hence why they are allowed to get away with it. The company is heavily male dominated and despite in the past year launching all these career progression equal rights initiatives etc have been sued in the past for discrimination several times, my role is not senior enough to justify me doing that.

All I want is to find out why my project work wasn't counted towards the promotion and that my colleagues was, why the job wasn't advertised and for a dev plan to be put in place in writing that they'll stick to this time. I'm not even sure it's worth bringing up the comments that were said as my boss will just deny saying it, although I do feel it does need to be recorded as otherwise he'll just get away with saying it and carry on treating us like we are his badly behaved students!

I feel undervalued but don't want to leave a job that I mostly love over this. I have never asked for promotions etc before and have just stuck my head down and got on with it so this is all quite stressful. I feel like I'm being unsubtly managed out because I decided to have a family.

Does anyone have any thoughts/advice?

TIA

lincroft1710

Do you honestly believe you have sufficient evidence to prove discrimination? Your colleague may have been promoted because they needed someone in that position and you weren't available. You may have been treated unfairly, but unless it was clearly discriminatory, unfairness does not breach employment legislation.

ssparks2003

They can only promote you into a role if it exists, giving you a promotion just because someone else got one is just stupid. Perhaps get your feet back under the desk for a few months before you think about the move up. Also your post is way to long and waffling, just give facts as you will get more concise advise

nicechap

Tara1981 wrote: »

Hi,

Hoping someone might have been in a similar situation or offer advice.

I've just returned to work after a year of Maternity Leave. In April 2016, I requested to be promoted based on additional responsibilities over the prior 3 years I'd been given and most importantly successful work on three of our big strategic accounts which meant a lot of money for the company. This was agreed by my boss at the time who wrote in my online development portal that I was greatly valued, long standing excellent reputation/work and he supported this and would work with my new line manager for a development plan to be put in place and for it to go through.

That all changed in October 2016 when I told the company I was pregnant. In the next reward cycle, December 2016 I was told that despite my old line manager, new line manager and UK HR all agreeing the promotion the US had pushed back saying they wanted to see more project based work. There is no reporting line to the US and I had done this type of work previously. After much discussion with my new line manager (during which he started the discussion off at expressing his own frustration at not being promoted to director level), we agreed on a project that I should work on to reach this goal, this was worked on Dec-May and presented to the UK and US teams at the end of May. In April 17 I went off on maternity leave. THREE weeks later my colleague, same level, worked on a similar less complex project got promoted to the position. The job was not advertised externally or internally. I only found out about it as she had called me asking me if I'd also got it! I raised this with my new line manager who reassured me that when I return from Maternity Leave that an appropriate plan would be put in place in order for me to also achieve this. I also have this in writing from him as well, again in my online development portal.

I returned to work 2 weeks ago, last week I had my 'Return to Work' meeting, my new line manager took no notes, I was asked to sign no form etc, usually this sort of thing I was of the understanding is usually documented. At the end of the meeting he asked me if I had any questions and I asked again about my wish to work towards this title and if he could work with me to put a plan in writing together. He got very defensive and said "I am not willing to put anything in writing, you need to speak to HR about that'. He then went onto say "You know, sometimes it's better not to put your head about the parapet, and stay under the radar" and my personal favorite...."If I did give you this I could make your life really difficult with everything you have going on, for example I could ask you to do this report and analysis and you'd have to do it because that's your job now" to which I replied that I'd been doing that type of work for four years already....the meeting ended abruptly, I was polite throughout. He had got annoyed with me earlier when I questioned one of the FY19 goals and I wonder if it was as a result of this. Despite the fact that I had backed down, all I was asking was clearer definition of what was expected of us, it's a lot of analytical work that he doesn't know how to do and I don't think he realizes how much is involved it's also never been our responsibility to do this type of work previously, the people who's job it is get compensated greatly for it every quarter, of which we do not get. I had said at the end that of course I'm very willing to do it. I've been working in that department at the company for 12 years, with excellent reputation and consistently good feedback every review. He started managing our team 18 months ago having never managed before. My colleague told me that whilst I was away he's had several arguments with her and the other lady in my team and comes across as a teacher in how he talks to you, this was reflected during a team conference call I was on last week where he'd become annoyed when my colleague said that she couldn't do something that evening as she was on PTO and he was very bullish in his response saying that it was unacceptable several times...despite the goal not needing to be achieved until September.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do? I have a meeting with HR tomorrow, Monday morning, but the reputation at my company is if you do go speak to HR, they will just ask if you want to raise a grievance and if you do it'll create bad feeling and you can kiss your career goodbye as you'll be seen as a trouble maker, hence why they are allowed to get away with it. The company is heavily male dominated and despite in the past year launching all these career progression equal rights initiatives etc have been sued in the past for discrimination several times, my role is not senior enough to justify me doing that.

All I want is to find out why my project work wasn't counted towards the promotion and that my colleagues was, why the job wasn't advertised and for a dev plan to be put in place in writing that they'll stick to this time. I'm not even sure it's worth bringing up the comments that were said as my boss will just deny saying it, although I do feel it does need to be recorded as otherwise he'll just get away with saying it and carry on treating us like we are his badly behaved students!

I feel undervalued but don't want to leave a job that I mostly love over this. I have never asked for promotions etc before and have just stuck my head down and got on with it so this is all quite stressful. I feel like I'm being unsubtly managed out because I decided to have a family.

Does anyone have any thoughts/advice?

TIA

Apologies if I've misunderstood your post, it is rather long and rambling.

The company 'culture' is rather alien to me, I've never been anywhere where one "requests" to be promoted, rather you apply for advertised vacancies, or make a case for jobs to be re-evaluated. or simply ask for a pay rise to reflect your value.

Is there a reason you didn't make notes of the return to work meeting and send them to your manager - this wouldn't be uncommon.

Any grade of job can bring a claim for discrimination - it was machinists at Fords whose action brought about the equal pay act.

I've never heard of maternity discrimination (no doubt someone can correct me), but I have heard of gender discrimination. The person promoted instead of you was a female so i think you will have a very hard time proving discrimination.

Grievances are often misguided, people sometimes use them as a way of getting back at their boss or simply to moan about being managed. The better ones are framed in positive language, take out all the personal stuff and focus on facts.

If it was me, I would meet HR and bring the email from before maternity leave and asking how much you want to get to that place again, and how can they help me to get there.

Savvy_Sue

nicechap wrote: »

I've never heard of maternity discrimination (no doubt someone can correct me), but I have heard of gender discrimination.

Protected characteristics:

What are protected characteristics?
Protected characteristics are the nine groups protected under the Equality Act 2010. They are:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

nicechap

Thank you :-)

theoretica

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Do you honestly believe you have sufficient evidence to prove discrimination? Your colleague may have been promoted because they needed someone in that position and you weren't available. You may have been treated unfairly, but unless it was clearly discriminatory, unfairness does not breach employment legislation.

If that was the reason for not getting a permanent promotion, rather than just during the maternity period, it looks to me exactly like discrimination. Text book, practically.

beckysheffield

I just want to add HR don!!!8217;t care about you, just about the business.

How long were you of on maternity leave.

unforeseen

How can it be discrimination if they need somebody promoted now to do a job now but one of the choices for promotion is not available to do that job, regardless of reason

theoretica

unforeseen wrote: »

How can it be discrimination if they need somebody promoted now to do a job now but one of the choices for promotion is not available to do that job, regardless of reason

It is not discrimination promoting someone to do the job at that time. It is discrimination if someone loses out on an equal chance of promotion just because they were on maternity leave at a given moment. This is a long-term detriment from maternity. Giving the mother fair chance at the promotion, and if she gets it appointing the other person temporarily as maternity cover is one solution.

unforeseen

Try to make that claim stick if they were both in the frame for promotion in that role.