Anyone know the answer to this one please?

[feralgirl]

Hi all,
My DH had three days off to look after me and DS last week when we were both sick; I know he's entitled to UNPAID time off for this but his boss said that, since he's not the "primary carer", he wouldn't get paid and that the primary carer is always considered to be the woman. She insinuated that, were he a woman and therefore a primary carer, he WOULD have been paid, which seems wrong to me.

His HR person has also told him this week that if he goes PT when I go back to work in 3 months then he won't be considered for promotion should a position arise.

Is it just me or haven't women fought long and hard to stop discrimination in the workplace on issues like these? Does anyone know where DH stands legally? He works for M&S; as a teacher myself I know that if anyone said anything like that to me I'd be straight onto my union rep but DH doesn't have that luxury unfortunately.

[RibenaBerry]

If it is true that a woman would be paid, then yes, it sounds like a fairly clear cut case of sex discrimination. Your DH could raise a grievance and potentially sue. There are potentially some wrinkles around the 'primary carer' thing, but I wouldn't get into those at this stage.

On the promotion thing, the argument actually gets a bit legally complex. I won't go into the full explanation, but I think that your DH would need to show that no such promotion barriers would be placed in the way of a woman who worked part time to get this under sex discrimination. He could potentially also look into a complaint regarding part time status or being subject to a detriment for exercising his statutory right to request part time work.

If I was him, I would make an informal appointment with the HR person to discuss this and go through his concerns. It may be that the manager/ HR person is inexperienced or hadn't thought things through. Perhaps try and escalate to someone more senior in HR if he can. Things can often be resolved that way. If that doesn't work, he can always put in a grievance.

BTW, I would not suggest that you name employers on here. It is public, and it might identify you/your DH.

[feralgirl]

Thanks, will do what you suggest. Wasn't really thinking about company names but thanks for the tip!