Female employees effectively do have priority over other employees who are at risk of redundancy for other available vacancies, even if the woman is on maternity leave. Registered in England and Wales no. If an employee ignores their communication obligations the right to claim automatically unfair dismissal is lost. Discover the power of our expert insight, trusted resources, data analysis and practical tools today. However, during the firm’s 2007 Christmas party, Ms Nixon and the male IT manager were seen kissing each other before leaving the party together. The ‘special treatment’ afforded to women must therefore go no further than what is reasonable and proportionate. However this decision was only a tribunal decision and may be decided differently in any similar Employment Appeal Tribunal cases. (See, An eligible employee who is the biological father of a child, or the mother's husband, civil partner or partner has the qualified right to take either one week's or two consecutive weeks' paternity leave. Employers face considerable difficulties in situations which require using redundancy scoring to choose between a man and a woman on maternity leave. She claimed direct sex discrimination and/or pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Employers must offer any suitable alternative vacancy to women made redundant on maternity leave. After this the employee was called to a disciplinary hearing and dismissed. The EAT considered what is reasonably practicable. The employment tribunal identified four jobs in Cheltenham which were potentially suitable for the consultant, but she had decided that she would not relocate there. The Regulation provides that if an employee becomes redundant during her maternity leave she is entitled to be offered any alternative suitable job that arises before her employment ends. However the obligation to offer suitable alternatives to women on maternity leave, is different from giving those women excessive protection form selection in the first place. Immediately after the last absence his partner was admitted to hospital to have the baby and the employee failed to make contact for some two days. Some employers, with a high percentage of male staff, who offer generous enhanced maternity packages to attract women may be able to objectively justify offering those enhanced maternity packages even though men are indirectly discriminated against as a result. However it appears that a pregnancy-related illness can be the subject of dismissal procedures once the protected period comes to an end. The claimant’s wife returned to work and he took just four months off to care for his son. regular, probationary, casual, project, seasonal, fixed-term). She resigned, subsequently claiming sex and pregnancy discrimination, harassment and unfair constructive dismissal. We have lodged an appeal against that part of the claim where we were unsuccessful with the Employment Appeal Tribunal.”. The maternity policy promoted recruitment, retention and development of women and this aim of recruiting more women to its male dominated workforce was enough to objectively justify the policy of paying men and women differently. Associative discrimination is explicitly excluded for the protected characteristic of marriage and civil partnership, but is not excluded for pregnancy and maternity. In 2016, men are being encouraged to play a greater role in caring for their babies. Details of the alternative jobs were sent to the consultant but she showed no interest in any of them and she was made redundant. Although it did not arise in this case, post-natal depression may constitute a disability leading to a disability discrimination claim especially if the employer failed to make reasonable adjustments. UKEAT/0108/10/ZT​Issue: ​Pregnancy related discrimination. However, these sections do not cover associative discrimination claims. An employment tribunal has ruled that a male employee was subjected to sex discrimination when his employer did not allow him to take additional paternity leave at full pay. The tribunal rejected the employer’s argument that an exception to sex discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 applied. When the criteria were applied, the female associate was still on maternity leave and therefore had no current client files which could be measured so she was given the maximum score for this criterion. The employee said that his phone battery had run out which was why he didn’t call the employer. A male solicitor was one of two associates working in an office as part of a real estate Team. Employers should take steps to prevent or contain harmful office gossip. The 1999 Regulations require an employer to offer a position to an employee on maternity leave, ahead of those employees not on maternity leave, if there is a suitable vacancy. Ali was informed that he would only be eligible for shared parental leave under the Capita policy, entitling him to statutory pay. Ali claimed that this would leave him at a financial disadvantage and he argued that he was therefore deterred from taking further paternity leave. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that in this case treating a woman on maternity leave more favourably in the redundancy scoring exercise constituted sex discrimination against the man in her selection pool. Were these intended mothers discriminated against under EU law by being denied maternity leave rights? When he was told he could only get payment at the statutory rate, he submitted a grievance and then a tribunal claim, alleging that it was direct sex discrimination to provide full pay to mothers on maternity leave but not to fathers on SPL. In addition to their existing two-week entitlement, the father taking paternity leave will also get. “The decision is based on the particular facts of the case and first instance tribunal judgments are not binding. A job centre employee took ordinary maternity leave of six months followed by six weeks’ annual leave. Ali took two weeks of paid paternity leave following the premature birth of his daughter in February 2016, followed by a week’s paid annual leave. Confusingly for employers on the other hand it appears that claims for discrimination related maternity and pregnancy are meant to be completely covered just by sections 17 and 18 of the Act. In the Hextall case, a male police officer unsuccessfully argued that he should receive full pay for SPL, the tribunal finding that the correct comparator was a female officer on SPL rather than on maternity leave. … less favourably on the grounds of a woman’s pregnancy? This had to be determined by reference to the particular fact in each case. Key case: In Visa International Service Association v Paul, the EAT held that an employee was constructively dismissed when her employer failed to notify her, while she was on maternity leave, of a newly created post in her department in which the employee was interested, and considered herself well qualified for.