Rights when on Maternity Leave

toffees1

I'm due to go on M/L in March. I'm the first person in my company to do so for five years. No other female in the company has children.

I have just been told that instead of providing maternity cover, they intend to hire a full time person at the same level of me to do my job. They say this will not in any way effect my job when I return, despite the fact there would effectively be two people at the same level, with the same ammount of work to be done as there is now, when they think one person is sufficient.

On any previous m/l occassion (going back 5 years) there was no cover brought in, people covered the work internally.

If they go ahead with this, do I have any legal recourse? As effectively, it is making my job redundant when I return from maternity leave

Gobán Saor

First things first, congrats on the pregnancy - hope all goes well:)

The position on cover for maternity leave is fairly clear. The employer can provide cover in any way he chooses for the duration of the leave. This might be an agency temp, hiring a fixed term contractor, overtime, assigning the work to other employees or even allowing the work to go undone. Equally, the employer might hire a full-time (you don't say "permanent"?) staff member or two or even a whole army to do the work.

No issue arises until you return to work - you are then entitled to get your old job back complete with all its pay and benefits. This includes the "size" of the job; if you have a certain responsibility level now, you should have a similar level post maternity leave.

toffees1

Gobán Saor
Thanks so much for your response, much appreciated
Sorry for delay in responding to you
cheers
Máire