Maternity rights

I am due to return to work after a period of 26 weeks' ordinary maternity leave. While I have been away my employers have made my job redundant. They now say that it is up to me to apply for alternative work because that is how the redundancy procedures operate. Is this right?

A woman whose job has been made redundant while she is on maternity leave has special protection. Her employer must offer her an available suitable vacancy if it exists. A failure to do so makes her dismissal automatically unfair. It is unlikely that the procedures you have described, which involve you having to identify and apply for alternative jobs, meet the legal requirement.

* More information: Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999; LRD booklet, Working parents