If you’re made redundant on maternity leave, your employer must actually offer you a suitable role, not just a chance to apply for one.
“Regulation 10 requires a suitable alternative role during maternity leave to be offered outright, but the role still has to genuinely be suitable.”
If you're made redundant during maternity leave and a suitable role exists, your employer must offer it to you outright, not just invite you to apply.
- If you are made redundant while on maternity leave and a suitable alternative role exists, your employer must offer it to you directly. Being invited to apply or interview alongside other candidates is not enough.
- Whether a role counts as suitable looks at more than just the job description. Location, hours and other terms all matter, and a role that requires you to relocate a long way may not count as suitable.
- If your employer skips this duty where a genuinely suitable role did exist, that can amount to automatic unfair dismissalA dismissal that's automatically treated as unfair, regardless of how long you've worked somewhere. This applies to reasons like whistleblowing, asserting a statutory right, health and safety, or preg... under the Employment Rights Act 1996The primary piece of legislation setting out employees rights in the UK, including the right not to be unfairly dismissed, the right to a written statement of employment particulars, and rights relati....
The situation
Ms Simpson, an insurance consultant, was on maternity leave when her employer began a redundancyA dismissal that occurs when your employer no longer needs the work you do, either because the business is closing, a workplace is closing, or the requirement for employees to carry out that kind of w... consultationA process your employer is required to carry out before making significant decisions that affect you, most commonly redundancy. It must be genuine, meaning your employer must listen and consider what ... that involved closing several branches, including the one she worked at in London. She was sent details of alternative roles she could apply for, including a guaranteed post at a call centre in Cheltenham if she was willing to relocate. She did not apply, citing ongoing illness following childbirth, and was made redundant.
What the tribunal found
The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 requires an employer to offer an employee on maternity leave any suitable alternative vacancyA suitable alternative vacancy is a genuinely comparable role your employer must offer you before making you redundant, if one exists. If you're on maternity, adoption, shared parental, neonatal care,... outright; it is not enough to invite her to apply or attend an interview or assessment process for it. On the facts of this case, though, the tribunal found that the Cheltenham role was not a suitable alternative for Ms Simpson, because relocating from London was a substantially less favourable change, so the employer was not found to have breached its duty here.
Simpson v Endsleigh Insurance Services Ltd. [2011] ICR 75. Employment Appeal Tribunal. 2010.