Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

[nesfulo]

My wife has been back to work now for 1 week following maternity leave at a doctors surgery where she is one of a team of part time receptionists. She has worked there for eight years and is the longest serving member of staff after the practice manager.
The structure of the office staff is Practice Manager> Office Manager> receptionists.
While my wife was off, the practice manager was ill for quite a long time and took a lot of time off. Therefore, the office manager took on some of her duties and one of the receptionist took on some of the office managers duties.
On my wife's return, she has been told that the receptionist that took on some of the office managers work has been promoted to "Senior Receptionist"
My wife is agrieved with this as she was not made aware of this position opening and feels that she has missed out on an opportunity due to being on maternity leave. On the financial perspective, my wife is at the highest pay rate for a receptionist due to her length of employment and believes that the new position would have enabled a payrise. On a personal note, she is very unhappy as her performance reviews are always very positive and it is acknowledged by the doctors and other staff members that she is a reliable point of reference for procedures and policies.
Has she been discriminated against and is there anything she can do?
Any advice would be most appreciated.

[Caspar]

Re: Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

When you say, she has been told......" She has been told by whom?

By far the best way of resolving any grievance in employment, and I have yet to come across a policy that doesn't state this as the first route to try, is to speak to her line manager, and if necessary the Practice Manager to see what exactly has happened, find out what the role of Senior Receptionist entails over and above what she does etc... if indeed it does exist. She could ask to see the job description and person specification for the post. It is always best to attempt to resolve these things amicably in the first place than go in all guns blazing.

As regards discrimination, if the post was advertised appropriately, it is not for the practice to tell her about it, it is for her to look at the advertisements, so I think she would have a very hard job proving discrimination.

[mikejclark]

Re: Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

Hi,

I agree with Casper on this re: how to start going about complaining about it. She could also raise a formal grievance with her employer too if informal enquires dont result in anything. Also what does to wife want out of this. There may be an issue if the other person has already been promoted as the employer would have to remove her from the post and put your wife in the position which could cause bad feelings in the office.

Regarding her possible discrimination issue, it is unlawful to discriminate against an employee who is on maternity leave if she is denied benefits which she is entitled to including promotion. She needs to check her contract of employment and the office manual re promotion procedure etc.

She also need to again decide what she wants to do if they won't remove the woman who was promoted in her place which as I mentioned above could cause bad feeling in the office. Does she want to take her employers to the employment tribunal and claim compensation for discrimination (she would need to prove that she was denied a promotion based on the fact she was on maternity leave and that she was more suitable for the role that the person chosen), or does she want to quit and claim constructive dismissal and discrimination compensation?

Hope this helps.

[nesfulo]

Re: Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

Thanks for your replies. It looks like my wife is just going to accept that she was not considered for promotion. They are a small team and they do seem to get on fairly well most of the time, and lets face it, jobs are not easily come by these days.

[SpringerSpaniel]

Re: Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

Discrimination in the workplace related to pregnancy and maternity is automatically regarded as unlawful sex discrimination, for obvious reasons.

However, the extent of the loss depends on how much more the Senior Receptionist receives in pay.

If there is a small amount of difference, it may be that the amount she would receive in any claim may not be worth the difficulties that complaining about this would easily bring in a small team.

Could she look for a simialr opening in another practice ?

[charitynjw]

Re: Discrimination on Return from Maternity leave

Thanks for your replies. It looks like my wife is just going to accept that she was not considered for promotion. They are a small team and they do seem to get on fairly well most of the time, and lets face it, jobs are not easily come by these days.

Good call, nesfulo!