Pregnancy/Maternity Discrimination

Rainyday01

Hey

I am trying to get some advice. Before I fell pregnant my employer would literally sing my praises and discussed me heading up a department. During my pregnancy my employer sidelined my duties to a less senior member of staff and this went out the window. I had regular comments asking if this would be the last and also in a meeting I was told that I may want to find another company to work for after I had my baby.

Fast forward to now, I am on maternity leave and requested flexible working. This was rejected (as the company are entitled to) although I do feel there was no viable business reason for this rejection. After the meeting, I was sent an email informing me that my job description has completely changed ( they have more than doubled my duties) plus I am now to report to various different managers. There is no way I can complete these duties and I feel that they are setting me up to fail.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

pinkshoes

Are you in a union?

https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/discrimination-during-maternity-leave-and-on-return-to-work/

Write to them asking them to detail the changes to your job description in writing, along with a reason for why your original job is no longer available.

TBagpuss

How long is your maternity leave? My understnading is that if you return following your Ordinary MAternity leave i.e. afte r26 weeks or less) then you are entitled to return to exactly the same job and conditions.

If you return after a longer period of leave ,and it isn't reasonably practical for you to return to the exact same job, then you are entitled to be offered a suitable alternative job on similar terms and conditions,

You may need to get legal advice - if you were to leave becasue of the changes they make then you may be able tto claim contructive dismissal and make a claim for ungair dismissal due to the maternity discrimination, BUT because cobntructive dismissal is dificult to prove, it would be essential to get advice first.

I agree with the suggestion which pinkshoes has made to write to them, say that you understnad that you are entitled to return to the same job under the same terms and conditions as when you left, and ask that, as they are seeking to make changes, request that they let you have writtendetails of the changes which they are proposing and what they are proposing your new conditions and responsibilities will be, and the basis on which they are saying that it is not possible for you to return to your original role.

Meanwhil, make sure that you kep a print out of the e-mails they have already sent, and document any further comments (e.g. what was said, who by, and in what context, and when. I would suggest that you do this either on paper or on your own phone -= don't save abnything on your work computer as you may lose access to it and it isn't private anyway.

If your organisation has a HR department then it may be