A tribunal in Northern Ireland has awarded £45,000 to a woman whose employer pretended that she was working part time while she was pregnant so that it didn't have to pay statutory maternity pay to her.
According to the BBC website, Ms Quigley worked at a cafe in Londonderry that was owned by Mr McGrory. She worked between 40 and 45 hours per week before she became pregnant, reduced to 30 hours per week when she became pregnant. However, when she asked about statutory maternity pay, Mr McGrory told her that he had put only 15 hours of her working week "through the books" so that she did not qualify for statutory maternity pay. He insisted that she lie to social security staff to cover up what he had done, which she refused to do.
Ms Quigley told the tribunal that she used her savings while trying to get statutory maternity pay and that she had been unable to enjoy her initial period with her baby because of money worries. The tribunal also heard medical evidence that she became ill as a result of her treatment by Mr McGrory.
The BBC has said that the tribunal awarded Ms Quigley £45,000 for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination, with the award for injury to feelings presumably at the higher end of the scale.
The XpertHR employment tribunal reporting service will look at the case in more detail once a transcript of the decision becomes available.
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Comments (2)
Wow. Just reading throught the archives and i'm absolutely astounded that this could even be allowed to happen. how dispicable can a person get? That poor woman couldn't enjoy the time with her baby the way she should have done all because of the selfishness of this man. He got what he deserved though.
Natalie Newton
www.ehrp.co.uk
Posted by Natalie Newton | April 1, 2011 12:06 PM
Posted on April 1, 2011 12:06
Thanks for the comment - I've been writing and editing case reports for 10 years and it's definitely one of the most shocking discrimination cases I've come across. You can read our full report of the case, based on the full transcript, in our tribunal reports section.
Posted by Stephen Simpson | April 1, 2011 12:18 PM
Posted on April 1, 2011 12:18