Internal Job application rejected because of recent promotion

TBagpuss

valiumtina86 said:

Hi all,
My partner and I work for the same company. He recently got an internal promotion to a quality auditor role after applying for it and coming out at the top of the other candidates. He's been in this position for 2 months.
Earlier this week, he submitted his candidacy for another internal position (team leader). The job advertisement asked anyone that had recently had an application rejected for the same job to not apply. There were no other specifications apart from the specific skills and experience.
HR rejected by partner's application on the ground that his latest promotion was too recent for him to move into a new role again so soon, and that the recommended time frame to do so would be at least 6 months. They said that the application was good otherwise.
Given that no disclaimer was given on job advertisement that his situation would make it unsuitable for applying, is there ground for a claim on the basis of unfair discrimination?
Many Thanks.

No. As others have said, there's no claim for discriminations as he hasn't been discriminated against on the basis of a legally protected characteristic.

And in any event, the decision not to consider him as he's only just had a promotion doesn't seem to be in any way unreasonable, unusual, or unfair. It makes very little sense from a business point of view to look at moving him when he is only just settling into his new role.
There's no requirement for them to list every single criteria in the job advert. Why do you feel that it is unfair? 

Also - is the new role he was rejected for more senior than that one he has just been promoted to? If so, then it's probably a bit unrealistic for him to expect to be promoted again so fast. If it would be a sideways move then if its a role he would have preferred, then it's bad luck hat the timing isn't right for him, but would he have turned down the original promotion in order to have the *chance* of the other role? 

On the plus side, they've told him that he won't be considered because he has not been in his current role long enough - it's not a personal rejection, and they are now aware that he would be interested in that type of role should one come up which he is eligible for. The last thing he should do is shoot himself in the foot by complaining or claiming he has been discriminated against. 

k12479

TBagpuss said:

valiumtina86 said:
...recently got an internal promotion to a quality auditor role after applying for it...been in this position for 2 months...Earlier this week, he submitted his candidacy for another internal position (team leader).

...they are now aware that he would be interested in that type of role should one come up which he is eligible for. The last thing he should do is shoot himself in the foot by complaining or claiming he has been discriminated against. 

Yes, but they are also now probably aware that he may not be very committed to his current role and, depending on the relative levels of the two positions, possibly sees himself as being under-employed or over-optimistic. All in all, applying so soon is rather misguided.