Made redundant on return from mat leave... advice please

SpendSpendSave

hope you can offer some advice  - sorry it’s so long!! 

Been on mat leave since June 2019, had my first DD in July - when on mat leave my KIT days were taken from me and cancelled when I was due to attend an overseas work trip. My manager removed me from this 2 weeks prior as he felt I hadn’t communicated enough with them and he was unsure if I was attending. It had been my plan to attend since before I went on mat leave, & I had completed and overseas form attendance trip 2 months prior to attending. However I was removed. 

I then raised a case with HR as I felt like this was the tip of the iceberg with a few things that had happened in my pregnancy such as 
- removed from events where alcohol/late nights would be present 
- mat leave starting 4 months prior to me finishing and taking over 
- passed over for a promotion & manager stated to me he would struggle to promote me due to extended period of leave 

After I raised this HR case I wasn’t invited to the work Christmas party or offered KIT days for a sales meeting due to take police 3 weeks before my return to work (so would have been very beneficial). My manager claimed due to my lack of response on the above event, he didn’t invite me to further events. 

I had a meeting with my Hr department and manager early this year - my manager basically disputed all my claims and we didn’t reach a resolution. I advised HR that with a young baby to support I had no option but to ignore my discomfort at how I was treated and get back to work. 

So I extended my mat leave to ensure I could take a full year plus annual leave. My team are at risk of redundancy where 2 of us are at risk, I was informed of this. 

My manager sent me an email 8 days before I was due to return with a list of things to do on my first day back - other than this there was no contact since our face to face HR meeting, other than a 15 minute phone call where I phoned him out of the blue to discuss redundancy. 

I returned to work last week at 8.30 and was called at 8.35 by my head of dept to tell me I was in the final 2 at risk of redundancy and now furloughed. 

A few days ago I had my individual consultation where my HOD advised I scored 7/15 - note: I am the longest standing member of the team and have never received anything other than praise for my work. One element I scored a 2/5 for was my industry knowledge- my HOD advised this was due to the fact everyone else in the team has been in the industry longer than me. I am the youngest in my team by several years - so can’t match some experience my colleagues have as I was in secondary school when they were starting out. 

I’ve spoken to ACAS who basically advised as I raised a HR case previously with comments of a discriminatory matter - I shouldn’t suffer any further detriment I.e. redundancy. 

This is now being looked into by the redundancy HR manager (she was unaware of my previous HR claim). 

Can someone advise where I stand on this? Are my work allowed to do this? My bosses are very big on team culture (In fact the reason they told me I didn’t get a promotion was because I didn’t call everyone in the team enough to say hello! We are field based) I feel like I’ve ruffled some feathers and now they think the easy option is to get rid!

JamoLew

Afaik - you cant be made redundant because of pregnancy/maternity but it is not a "get out of jail free" card if they have followed due process

Comms69

So much wrong here. But fundamentally you are incorrect, if your position is redundant, it's nothing to do with your previous complaints. 

What you do have is protection if there is other alternative suitable work available. Is there?

I mean you can still make a claim for discrimination. But that's a different matter in terms of hills to die upon. 

SpendSpendSave

Thanks for your replies - what do you think regarding the fact I’ve already raised an internal HR complaint regarding discrimination, so by the rules of ACAS i shouldn’t face further detriment? 

Also regarding the years of experience comment - experience wasn’t required on my job spec when I applied for the role! 

Sorry for a million questions I’ve not done anything like this before so trying to get my ducks in a row..! Thank you. 

TELLIT01

Without full knowledge of the content of the matrix used to help the company determine who should be made redundant its impossible to say whether or not there is any case for the OP to pursue.  It's possible that the deciding factor was simply industry experience but unlikely.  The comment about experience not being part of the original job spec is totally irrelevant.

TBagpuss

SpendSpendSave said:

Thanks for your replies - what do you think regarding the fact I’ve already raised an internal HR complaint regarding discrimination, so by the rules of ACAS i shouldn’t face further detriment? 

Also regarding the years of experience comment - experience wasn’t required on my job spec when I applied for the role! 

Sorry for a million questions I’ve not done anything like this before so trying to get my ducks in a row..! Thank you. 

I think that the issue is that they should not be connected - if the selection for redundancy is retaliation for having raised the concerns or if the criteria used to select you included things you had raised (e.g. if they marked you down for not having attended the out of town event or now having completed training that wasn't offered to you, for instance) then that would be an isue.
As I understand it, the protection only covers you while you are actually on maternity leave - once you return, you are treated the same as everyone else.  I don't know for sure, but I think this would mean that if the final decision was not made until after you returned to work, you don't have an automatic right to be offered an alternative role if one is a available, as at the point the decision was made you were no longer on maternity leave, but you may want to check that with an employment lawyer. 

You should check that the scoring used did not work against you due to your leave - i.e. that periods of absence due to pregnancy or maternity leave were not taken into account, for example. 

JReacher1

I didn't think you could still be furloughed so it will be interesting to understand how they furloughed you last week!
I think you need to ignore the previous disciplinary as although you said no outcome was reached it seems one was as you agreed to return to work and the case went no further.  That in itself seems to be a resolution.

Personally I suspect you've been picked for redundancy due to these complaints and probably because they have managed without you for the last 12 months.  The issue you have is proving whether this was why.  I would speak to an employment lawyer to seek professional advice.  

When did your maternity leave officially end?  You said you took some holidays to extend to the full year.  I am not sure what the rules are if you are no longer on maternity but are taking annual leave instead.  That may confuse things!

Undervalued

SpendSpendSave said:

Thanks for your replies - what do you think regarding the fact I’ve already raised an internal HR complaint regarding discrimination, so by the rules of ACAS i shouldn’t face further detriment? 

Also regarding the years of experience comment - experience wasn’t required on my job spec when I applied for the role! 

Sorry for a million questions I’ve not done anything like this before so trying to get my ducks in a row..! Thank you. 

ACAS don't make rules, they only offer guidance as to procedures that if followed, should allow an employer to stay within the law. It does not mean that following a different procedure is automatically unfair or unlawful.

For example there are no longer statutory disciplinary procedures that must be followed to the letter, only guidance as to a procedure that would generally be lawful.

Whilst ACAS can help you (and indeed your employer) to understand the law, they cannot offer legal advice and their service is not a substitute for proper legal advice from a solicitor.

I assume you are not a member of a union or professional body? Does you house insurance provide access to free legal advice? 

Comms69

JReacher1 said:

I didn't think you could still be furloughed so it will be interesting to understand how they furloughed you last week!
I think you need to ignore the previous disciplinary as although you said no outcome was reached it seems one was as you agreed to return to work and the case went no further.  That in itself seems to be a resolution.

Personally I suspect you've been picked for redundancy due to these complaints and probably because they have managed without you for the last 12 months.  The issue you have is proving whether this was why.  I would speak to an employment lawyer to seek professional advice.  

When did your maternity leave officially end?  You said you took some holidays to extend to the full year.  I am not sure what the rules are if you are no longer on maternity but are taking annual leave instead.  That may confuse things!

Rules were changed specifically for maternity and paternity leavers

Marcon

SpendSpendSave said:

Thanks for your replies - what do you think regarding the fact I’ve already raised an internal HR complaint regarding discrimination, so by the rules of ACAS i shouldn’t face further detriment? 

ACAS doesn't make the rules, as someone else has already pointed out. Raising a complaint doesn't provide a magic shield against anything unwelcome happening to you. If it did, everyone would be complaining the whole time as a means of self protection! If your position is genuinely redundant, the fact you've complained won't alter that fact. 

Thrugelmir

Your employer has the difficult task of reducing headcount. From a personal perspective you'll be asking why me. There'll be a matrix of criteria drawn up to ensure that the process is deemed fair. In difficult times difficult decisions need to be made. No one likes making a colleague redundant. It's life though. Decisions have to be made in the best interests of the company not the personal circumstances of individual employees.