A DISABLED mum has won £36,000 after resigning from a charity job after not being allowed to work fewer hours so she could care for her newborn.
Judge Patrick Quill said that Lisanne Hedger, who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate, had suffered “indirect” sex-based discrimination at the hands of her boss at the British Deaf Association (BDA).
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Lisanne, from Kent, made a claim of sex discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal after resigning from her role as a project manager at the BDA after her request to work two or three days a week was refused.
She wanted to reduce her hours as she returned from maternity leave in February 2019 to give herself more time to look after her new baby.
Her boss at the North London-based charity refused the request to cut her four day working week to 16 hours over two days or 24 hours over three days.
This was because they insisted that Lisanne’s role required a minimum of 28 hours a week.
However, ruling on the case, Judge Quill ruled that this was based on “false information” that Lisanne would be travelling for seven hours a day.
He added that the demand of the 28 hour week created a “disadvantage” for women as they are more likely to have childcare issues than men.
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The judge said: “We are satisfied that the claimant was put at the particular disadvantage, and that arranging childcare which was affordable and practicable meant that she faced great difficulties in working four days per week.
“It is not necessarily the case that it would have been completely impossible for the claimant to work the four days, but, as we say it would have been very difficult for her.”
He also said that the charity’s refusal to even trial the 24 hour week amounted to unfair dismissal and indirect discrimination.
It is illegal for companies to discriminate on the basis of sex, either directly or indirectly, under the Equality Act of 2010.
Employees can also claim for unfair dismissal if they have worked for their employer if they are given a false reason for dismissal, if they aren’t given enough notice or if the reason for the dismissal is unfair.
Automatically unfair dismissals are those based on reasons like pregnancy and maternity, parental leave, family and pay or working hours.
Constructive unfair dismissal is when an employee is not sacked but is forced to resign over one of these issues.
Lisanne had told the tribunal that she had suffered “anxiety, sleeplessness and feelings of loss of self-worth” due to the discrimination.
Judge Quill awarded her £11,000 for injury to feelings, £16,903.32 for lost earnings, £775.38 for lost pension contributions and £2,032 for breach of flexible working rules, plus interest.
The total pay-out was £36,730.61.
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In awarding the money, he said: “The discriminatory conduct was not a one-off act and not of a short-term duration.”
The hearing did, however, reject the claim of direct sex discrimination.
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