Maternity Discrimination and pregnancy

Storm Botha v White Lake Cheeses Ltd

Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for our case of the week. Last week we had our monthly newsletter for May, for anyone that missed it, you can find it here. This week, we are looking at a successful pregnancy discrimination claim against a Somerset based cheesemaker. This week’s Employment Tribunal case is [...]

High Award in Self-Represented Morrison’s Sex Discrimination Claim

Many of you may have read about the self-represented Claimant who was awarded £60,000 by an Employment Tribunal having been discriminated against following her maternity leave. Donna Patterson was a part-time buyer in the supermarket’s online business and was asked to return to a full time role once her maternity leave ended. Upon raising her [...]

Sejpal v Rodericks Dental Ltd

This week we are looking at employment status. Employment status is an issue that dominated much of the employment tribunal news agenda around five years ago with companies such as Uber, Deliveroo and Addison Lee. Employment Status can be divided into three categories, employees, workers and self-employed. The test of whether someone is self-employed or [...]

Channel 4 and Monzo Issue New Miscarriage Policy

Channel 4 and Monzo have made headlines recently for becoming among the first businesses to adopt a specific miscarriage policy. By law, employees only become entitled to maternity/paternity leave if their child is stillborn (when their child dies after the 24th week of pregnancy or during birth). There is no legal entitlement to maternity/paternity leave [...]

By |2021-06-02T16:19:55+00:00May 28th, 2021|Maternity/Paternity Discrimination|0 Comments

Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police v Mrs N Town

This case looks at what constitutes unfavourable treatment for a discrimination claim. More specifically, can treatment still be unfavourable if it precludes the employee from danger? Facts Mrs. Town was employed by Devon and Cornwall police as a police officer (on the ‘front line’ as a Response Officer). In November 2017 she informed her manager [...]

Chelmsford Unisex Hair Salon Ltd v Grunwell

There is no question this week but this case serves as a classic example of way an ostrich approach to Tribunal defences is not a good strategy. Ms Grunwell, the Claimant, bought claims for unpaid holiday and maternity discrimination against Chelmsford Unisex Hair Salon, the Respondent. Her claim alleged she was dismissed by the Respondent [...]

Harrison v Aryma Ltd

Greetings and welcome back to another weekly case law update. Last week we looked at harassment on several grounds including race, sex and sexual harassment. This week we are looking at settlement agreements and tribunal procedure regarding the admissibility of evidence. Long-time readers may remember the case of Bailey v Faithorn Farrell Timms LLP which […]

April Employment Law Update – Family Friendly Rates

The next lot of rates to be updated are the family friendly pay rates for maternity pay, paternity pay, shared parental pay and adoption pay. As of 7th April (next Monday) rates will increase from £145.18 to £148.68 a week. On the same day, the minimum weekly earnings to qualify for parental pay will also […]

By |2019-12-23T17:57:38+00:00March 29th, 2019|Maternity/Paternity Discrimination|0 Comments

South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust v Jackson and Others

The question this week is: Does sending an important email to an email account that staff on maternity leave don’t access amount to an act of unfavourable treatment? Ms Jackson, was one of 18 Claimants who was made redundant by South West Yorkshire NHS, the Respondent, whilst off on maternity leave. As the Claimants were […]

Pregnancy & Maternity – Redundancy Protection Extended

It is believed over 50,000 women lose their jobs each year as a result of being pregnant or taking maternity leave. One in nine women surveyed by the Department for Business and Energy said they had been dismissed, made redundant or felt they had to resign following their return from having a child. Following a […]

Jo Swinson MP Pairing Scandal: A Case Study in Pregnancy/Maternity Discrimination

Over the past few months we have run employment law related features on government scandals. Following the swathes of cabinet and government resignations this month, we were going to play a game of ‘Constructive dismissal, or no constructive dismissal?’ in our topical news segment this month. Would you say Boris Johnson’s implied term of trust […]

Capita v Ali

The history about the employability, mobility and equality of female employees is one that often hangs on pregnancy and maternity. Whilst it is discriminatory and illegal to treat women unfavourably due to pregnancy and/or maternity, many employers wrongly perceive female employees as an absence risk, commitment or financial risk due to the fact they might […]

Really Easy Car Credit Ltd v Thompson

Can a decision to dismiss an employee be fair if the decision to dismiss was before the employer discovered the employee was pregnant but the employer had knowledge of pregnancy before the dismissal took effect? Really Easy Car Credit Ltd v Thompson Ms Thompson, the Claimant, was employed as a telesales operative by Really Easy […]

By |2019-12-24T16:31:05+00:00March 9th, 2018|Maternity/Paternity Discrimination|0 Comments

Maternity and Sex Discrimination – Are Employers Up To Date?

A recent survey of over 1,000 business decision makers by the Equality and Human Rights Commission has found that a large proportion of employers hold antiquated views. Maternity and sex discrimination in the workplace: Nearly half of employers think it is acceptable to ask a female applicant if she has children during an interview (46%) […]