Maternity leave and redundancy

Hi
so last March I told my boss I was pregnant and my due date was August. In July I went on maternity leave and had my baby the following month. During the process of being pregnant whilst working I struggled to get all the appropriate info relating to my leave and my entiltment etc. Also my risk assesment - which is pretty crucial as I work in construction!!
In October I was getting bored of being at home so asked to return to work, of which I did in very late October.
On my first day, expecting to be greated by my boss a lady walks in and says "hi, you must be vanessa? I'm shelly the new qs on build works (my section I worked in being the sole surveyor in that role) - of which I was pretty taken a back.
Upon returning it was pretty clear I had no work! Of which they gave me random bits and bobs to do. In November we moved offices and everyone was given a desk except for me, I was later told I was "hot desking" not bad for a full time employee!
After kicking up a fuss I got a fixed desk - 5 months later after someone retired!
Still not having a workload - I picked up random drubs to fill the days, and the work I was orignially employed to do was being given to the new girl! Effectivly taking my work. I have since found out, she survived redundency from another office and our office offered her a job - of which I feel is my position.
On Monday all 8 surveyors were called into a meeting and told 2 out the 8 were to go, and we will find out Friday. So today we got another letter telling us if it was us or not. I was one of the two selected for the at risk position. Shelly was not.

Does anybody know if I have a leg to stand on anywhere? As I feel my position was taken whilst I was off effectivly putting me out of a job.

You returned very early from maternity leave compared to the full year you could have taken, and gave only very short notice that you wanted to come back early. So I imagine they had cover in place and were suddenly faced with an extra body.

However it was 9 months ago that you came back, so if you felt your job had been taken or whatever when you were on maternity leave, you would really need to have raised the issue previously. Have you put in any kind of grievance or anything about the lack of work?

So if they'd made you redundant shortly after you returned from maternity leave, you would have had a good argument, but as it's now 9 months down the line, I imagine your employer would argue that although you came back early, they decided they did need both of you which is 'proved' by the fact that they didn't feel they needed to make any redundancies then. They will say that now the business situation has changed and they do now need to make a redundancies and you should be treated just as anyone else.

So you need to focus on the redundancy procedure. Any complaint about your maternity leave or your return from maternity leave needed to be made a while ago. If you feel that your colleague should have been in the group at risk as well, then you can raise that now.

I notified them I would be returning in October before I went off! So in July.

Two weeks ago I raised the issue to te main boss that I feel I have a lack of work due to someone being employed in my asbence. He told me I was being silly. I also asked if I could cut back to 4 days a week as to spend an extra day with my child. He said he will see what he can do - 2 weeks later I was on notice of redundancy!

I also have various email that I have sent to my line manager saying I have no work.

You said in your original post that you were getting bored' in October so 'asked to return to work', which implies that it was a change of mind and a request, rather than a decision you'd made all along and they knew about.

Regardless of that, your maternity leave ended 9 months ago and you need to focus on what's happening now. Your complaint about your maternity leave sounds to be as though you feel they should have made your colleague redundant when you came back. They didn't, they obviously felt they could use both of you, and kept you both on. You're really out of time to make any formal substantial complaint about your lack of work, so you need to let that go.

You need to focus on the redundancy procedure that's happening now, whether the criteria used for selection are fair, whether the right people are at risk, etc.