returning to 'same job' after maternity leave

[pacha]

This is something that concerns me..I currently work in a customer services environment and within our office we have a phone team who basically deal with customer complaints over the telephone, I have done this in the past and I hated it. i found it so stressful.

Anyway, I asked a colleague whether when I returned from maternity leave i could be put into the phone team and I was told yes. This is stressing me out majorly already. I have been told I could as it is in my contract that telephone work could be possible.

Is this true?

 

[Chopsie]

Yes and no - according to the governments info website -

When you return to work after ordinary maternity leave, you have a right to the same job and the same terms and conditions as if you hadn’t been absent. This also applies when you come back after additional maternity leave, unless your employer shows that it’s not reasonably practicable for them to take you back in your original job (for example, because the job no longer exists). In that case, you must be offered alternative work with terms and conditions as if you hadn’t been absent.

I suppose if they argue you're no longer needed on your old department, they could move you elsewhere. And if it's in your current contract that you could be moved to another department at anytime to fit with 'business needs' (which most do these days) then you'd probably have little choice.

It's worth speaking to your union if you have one though