Is asking a pregnant woman about her future plans discrimination?

Friday 4 February 2022

A pregnant woman has succeeded in persuading an Employment Tribunal (ET) that she was discriminated against when a senior manager asked what her plans were whilst nodding towards her stomach.

Ms Duffy was a PA at Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust in North London. In 2019 she was told the Trust would be restructuring her team and planned to promote her to a Band 5 role without a requirement for her to go through a formal interview process.  Ms Cleasby, a colleague, heard about the plans for Ms Duffy and was not happy, assuming Ms Duffy was receiving preferential treatment because she was pregnant.

Later in conversation, Ms Cleasby said to Ms Duffy she had “planned her pregnancy well” and asked if she had told Mr Beaton (who had been given responsibility for leading the restructure of the PA team) that she wouldn’t be coming back after maternity leave.  Ms Cleasby had not been told that Ms Duffy did not intend to return to work after maternity leave and she simply assumed this was the case, based on her belief that new mothers tended not to return to work after maternity leave.

In September 2019, Ms Duff had a meeting with Mr Beaton, who informed her that she would have to go through a formal process in order to be promoted.  It was during this meeting Mr Beaton asked what her future plans were, whilst nodding in the direction of her stomach.  Ms Duffy went on to successfully interview for the role, but after a dispute over salary she made a complaint and then issued ET proceedings.

The ET found that the treatment Ms Duffy received from the Trust and, in particular from Mr Beaton and Ms Cleasby, amounted to pregnancy discrimination.  The comment made by Mr Beaton was found to be ‘clumsy’ and made because of a stereotypical assumption about new mothers, not due to anything Ms Duffy had said.  At the time of the meeting Ms Duffy did not have an obligation to inform her employer about her pregnancy and Mr Beaton should not have asked about it.

The ET ordered the parties to liaise with each other with a view to reaching agreement as to what compensation should be paid to Ms Duffy, failing which it would list a remedy hearing to determine this issue.

If you have any questions about maternity discrimination, please email or call our Employment Law team today on 0113 207 0000.