While on maternity leave, the claimant was told by her employer to “go to a Jobcentre” for future money, being dismissed without notice.
Anastassia Rodin, working as a trainer which supplied HR services, has been awarded £40,000 by an employment tribunal after being dismissed while on maternity leave.
The Judge ruled that Ms. Rodin was discriminated against on grounds of pregnancy and maternity which was in breach of the Equality Act.
According to the claimant, after beginning maternity leave in June 2017, Ms. Rodin was told she would receive only two months of maternity pay and would need to go to a Jobcentre for “future money”.
As such, she was dismissed by her employer in September without notice but was subsequently contacted by a new company, DMS1 Limited, which took over the contracts for her former employer.
The new organisation stated they would be willing to re-employ the claimant following her maternity leave.
Despite this offer of employment, it was stipulated that, if choosing to take the offer, Ms. Rodin would not receive maternity pay in addition to losing her benefits.
The court heard that Ms. Rodin chose to turn down the offer due to her lack of trust towards the company.
The Claimant did not receive any statutory maternity pay after August 2017 and was not informed or consulted by either company.
However, she spoke of the negative effects the dismissal had upon her mental health including causing her to suffer from depression and being unable to produce enough breast milk to feed her newborn, which distressed her further.
The employment tribunal stated:
Ms. Rodin had no job during her maternity leave and this had a detrimental and adverse impact upon her health and well-being and this adversely impacted her ability to feed her child, which caused additional distress.
That distress was worsened by Dhillons Management Services failing to contact Ms. Rodin or to provide her with any means to access the rest of her maternity pay.
However, her former employer, Ms. Sandhu, stated that the Claimant had been “sold a dream” by her solicitor and she had attended therapy in order to have back up for a “big payday”.
As such, Ms. Rodin was awarded £16,970.32 for loss of earnings for 46 weeks, £12,500 for injury to feelings due to Ms. Sandhu’s comments, £3524.50 for owed statutory maternity pay and £6240 for failure to adequately inform the claimant. This was in addition to being awarded smaller sums of money.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
