Woman who had termination after being demoted to waitress wins sexual discrimination

Woman who had termination after being demoted to waitress wins sexual discrimination. The restaurant manager told a tribunal how she had an abortion when she was demoted to a waitress after telling bosses she was pregnant. The 26 year-old spoke out after winning her case for sexual discrimination against her old bosses at Silverwells in Bothwell, Glasgow.

The woman was headhunted to work at the hotel and was quickly promoted to General Manager.

In January, she left work early to go to Monklands Hospital in Airdrie as she was suffering from internal bleeding. She was later told by a doctor that she was pregnant.

A week after telling her bosses of the pregnancy she was called into the office by Operational Director, Roberto Cecchetti, and told that she was being demoted to a waitress as her work wasn’t up to scratch.

She was offered just two days work a week on minimum wage where previously she had been earning £24,000 a year.

The impact of the hotel’s decision left her with no choice but to resign as the money was barely enough to live on.

She said: “I felt really depressed. I really enjoyed my job. My salary was covering all my outgoings.”

After resigning, she started suffering from depression and was put on a dose of citalopram which was later doubled as her mental state quickly deteriorated.

She added: “To go from a decent salary to nothing made me feel really low, really quickly. I went to my gran for help and signed on for jobseekers’ allowance and housing benefit. I felt I had nothing in my life. I didn’t have a job and I had no money. I was just crying all the time.”

The woman was so depressed that she terminated her pregnancy as she was struggling to keep herself, let alone a child. At the time of the abortion she was 13 weeks pregnant.

When asked how she felt about the abortion by employment judge Rosie Sorell, the woman said: “The termination made me feel grief.”

The judge will decide next month what compensation the woman should receive.

In this case, the tribunal have ruled that discrimination took place as a result of her pregnancy, and not as her work performance as her employers tried to infer. There could therefore be a very substantial claim for injury to feelings given the loss of the child.

Update

The tribunal have awarded the former manager £29,000 in compensation from Silverwells Hotel.

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Woman who had termination after being demoted to waitress wins sexual discrimination
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Kathryn

Kathryn is a highly experienced HR Manager with a wealth of skills and knowledge acquired across a variety of industries including manufacturing, health and social care and financial services. She has worked in small localised business and larger multi sited organisations and is comfortable liaising with senior managers and union officials as well as answering queries from team members. Connect with Kathryn on:

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