A former part-time employee at Morrisons who represented herself at Employment Tribunal against them, has been awarded over £60,000.
Donna Patterson, who was a buyer within the supermarket’s online business, was offered a role as a confectionary buyer. However, when she informed the company that she was pregnant with her second child, she maintained the job ‘disappeared’.
After returning from a year long maternity leave, Ms. Patterson found that her department had been restructured and she was expected to take on a full-time role, despite only being contracted and paid to work part-time hours.
On raising concerns about being able to fulfil the new role in her allotted hours, she was told to “prioritise things a bit better and get your head in the right place and get your mindset right”. Ms Patterson raised several grievances through the company's internal process but told the Tribunal that it “just totally failed me".
In December 2021 Ms Patterson was signed off with work-related stress but claimed that during her sick leave her manager called with a work-related query. Eventually, in March 2022 she resigned on the grounds of constructive dismissal. After leaving, Ms Patterson submitted a data subject access request and found a letter that showed there were plans to demote her while she was pregnant.
Whilst looking for legal representation, Ms Patterson realised that the cheapest option was around £300 per hour and therefore decided that she would have to represent herself – with help from Pregnant Then Screwed, a charity that seeks to protect, support and promote the rights of pregnant women and who helped her understand what would be expected at the Tribunal.
On 21st October, the Employment Tribunal ruled in Ms Patterson’s favour, stating that she had been “unfavourably treated” and that Morrisons had subjected her to a “detriment of indirect sex discrimination after her maternity leave”. The judge added "The claimant was constructively dismissed and the dismissal was unfair" and ordered the supermarket to pay her £60,442.25 in compensation.
In a statement after the ruling, Morrisons said:
"…we don't accept that we acted in an unfair way in this case and believe a number of the facts have been misrepresented and we are considering an appeal."
Joeli Brearley, Chief Executive of Pregnant Then Screwed, said:
"All women want is to be heard. We want employers who listen to us, apologise when they get it wrong, and then do what is necessary to ensure it doesn't happen again,"
She added:
"We are proud to have supported Donna through this ordeal. She is brave and tenacious and we hope the publicity of this case will be a warning sign to other companies thinking they can get away with discriminating against pregnant women and new mothers in the workplace."
