In the case of Storm Botha v White Lake Cheeses Ltd Storm Botha was invited to an ‘ambush meeting’ where she was told to take a lower role at White Lake Cheese, in Somerset, with less pay after news about her pregnancy got out.
The expectant mother – who suffered panic attacks and struggled to sleep as she was concerned about her job security – later suffered a miscarriage following the stressful ordeal.
Her boss, Roger Longman, insisted he did not know the then 32-year-old was pregnant when he made the decision to demote her.
But an employment tribunal has upheld Miss Botha’s claims of pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal after she represented herself against an experienced barrister during a six-day hearing. She will now receive compensation.
The Bristol tribunal heard that the now 34 year old – a media communications graduate from Bath Spa University – started working at White Lake Cheese as a ‘cheese-making assistant’ in September 2020.
While at work in August 2021, Miss Botha shared with a manager that she and her partner were trying for a baby.
Her colleague replied: ‘I thought you were happy here, why would you jeopardise that by having a baby?’, the tribunal heard.
Around one month later, Miss Botha told office manager Sandra Hamilton that she was five weeks pregnant, and she didn’t want this to be common knowledge among staff.
At the time, Mr Longman was on holiday and Ms Hamilton insisted she did not tell the managing director the news.
The tribunal heard that when he returned to work the following month, he invited Miss Botha to a meeting and unusually for the expecting mother, did not tell her what it was about.
The meeting opened with Mr Longman criticising her social media marketing work saying he was ‘not impressed by the posts’ and he complained the cheese was being sold too cheaply on the internet.
The managing director told Miss Botha she was moving to a different department at a lower rate of pay.
Employment Judge Martha Street ruled she was treated unfairly ‘on the grounds of pregnancy’ and that Mr Longman was aware of her pregnancy when he called the meeting.
EJ Street said: ‘We are satisfied that Mr Longman knew of Ms Botha’s pregnancy before the meeting. [It] was not a relaxed, informal meeting presenting issues over the future of Storm’s role.
‘It was a meeting in which criticisms were made of her work and it led to the announcement of a decision already made to move her to a different, lower paid role, on a short-term basis.
‘Revisiting the history, we find a pregnancy-related decision to demote Miss Botha, followed by the decision to make that longer-term, prompted both by the pregnancy and the grievance, an unwelcome and angry challenge to Mr Longman’s decision-making.’
A remedy hearing to decide her compensation will take place at a later date.
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