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CompanyCleared of Discrimination Against Pregnant Employee

The dismissal of an employee is automatically unfair if the reason for it is that she is pregnant.

The Employment Tribunal (ET) has ruled that a woman who was employed as a press officer at a Northamptonshire hotel was notunfairly dismissed because the decision to outsource her job had been takenbefore her employer was made aware of her pregnancy.

Samantha Remedios claimed that she had been sacked by Macepark (Whittlebury) Limited, which owned the hotel, after thecompany found out that she was expecting a baby. She had worked at the hotelfor 11 months before being dismissed and her work had been praised by hermanager. In Mrs Remedios’s opinion, she was sacked because she was honest abouther pregnancy during a routine appraisal interview, but the ET found that thereason for her dismissal was that her services were no longer needed.

However, the ET did criticise theterminology used in a letter sent to Mrs Remedios by the company’s Human Resourcesmanager, calling it ‘nothing short of shambolic’, and made it clear that hadMrs Remedios acquired the employment rights that are gained after being incontinuous employment with an employer for one year, the company would havebeen forced to pay her compensation.

The ET also criticised the company’sdecision to let the hotel manager conduct Mrs Remedios’s appeal against thegeneral manager’s decision to sack her, on the ground that a subordinate isunlikely to overturn the decision of a senior manager.

It is unlawful todismiss or demote an employee or to refuse her vocational training because sheis pregnant or on maternity leave. Treating a woman less favourably because ofpregnancy or maternity leave is unlawful sex discrimination. It is also unlawfulsex discrimination for an employer to turn down a job applicant because she ispregnant. For advice on any discrimination matter, please contact John Davis on 0151 236 8070.