This question is really about someone returning from maternity leave to a job-sharing role and effectively being told that their job-sharing role is no longer available because, and for whatever reason, it hasn't worked out, that they have to come back full-time or to an alternative role part-time.

Seamus: The issue of returning from maternity pay, red flags are automatically up. The employer needs to tread carefully, and it needs to be cautious when it comes to it. You need to look at whether it is the ordinary maternity leave, whether the legal requirement is that you return back to your role as it was, or if it's into the additional maternity leave, that there can be some flexibility, but it has to be justifiable.

If this has been a job-share, sometimes it is difficult for employers to facilitate job-shares whenever one person leaves, and they have to find another. But the key thing is that the employer does have to take reasonable steps to try and resolve the situation. So just because one-half of the job-share is on maternity leave and the other one then leaves, it doesn't mean that there's an opportunity for the employer to say, "Well, forget the job-share. We'll just have a full-time role here now."

I think that the obligation is certainly on the employer to take steps to try to facilitate the job-share. And they're going to have to evidence that, whether that's through initial internal trawl. But the guidance certainly says that you must log an external trawl as well. It may be that you'll get someone that will say, "Well, look, I can do a job-share, but I can only do a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I can't do a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday."

Then is the time to go back to the employee and say, "This is the difficulty, this is the problem that we have," and talk to the employee about what the issue is there. But, key thing, keep the employee informed the whole way along. If the job-share partner leaves and the person's on maternity leave, you need to contact the . . .

Scott: The person that's on maternity leave.

Seamus: Yeah, and let them know that it's a developing situation, "We're going to manage it. We'll do our best to look at it. We have no guarantees. Bottom line is we can't take blood from the stone, but we'll do our best," and we have to have the evidence available to say that we have, as the employer, done as much as we can, essentially.

But, ultimately, if all the steps are taken, we're not able to facilitate it, then it's the ability to go back to the employee and say, "We've done our best. We're going to have to look at alternative options here."