A recent ET case (Sarah Lindup V Bright HR Limited) highlighted that refusing to allow an employee to return to her previous position following maternity leave was discrimination, which I read about recently on BBC News.

What struck me regarding this case, is that whilst organisations can have clear policies outlining their maternity procedures in line with best practice and their legal requirements, what matters is how managers then take steps in welcoming and managing employees returning to work following their maternity leave.

In the above case, Sarah Lindup had been earning about £65,000 in a role prior to her maternity leave, but on her return was given a role earning £24,000. When she had asked her new boss about returning to the same team as before, she was “laughed at” as though "returning to the web team was a ludicrous idea".  What the new boss should have checked or remembered, was that under the Equality Act 2010, an employee is entitled to return to the same job on  the same terms and conditions if they take 26 weeks of maternity leave or less. 

The meeting Sarah Lindup attended with her new boss was referred to as a “mum-to-mum chat”, which the panel found to have "significantly undermined or degraded her employment status".  It also sounds to me like the new boss had made assumptions about her employee's planned return to work, without considering the broader impact of her actions or having meaningful conversations about what her intentions were.

This case highlights how HR can guide managers on maternity rights to prevent discrimination,  as well as provide support in return-to-work discussions.  Please contact the Narrow Quay HR team for further queries and support.