Pregnancy discrimination

[Lindyloo86]

Hi everyone I have recently resigned from my job for unfair constructive dismissal. To give the background when 7 weeks into my maternity leave I got a letter asking me to attend disciplinary investigation for something that happened 11months ago they have discovered through me emails. Whilst working for this company they told everyone I was pregnant before I was ready to annouce due to previous miscarriage, alienated and ostracised me daily whilst pregnant. They left me out of work events and meetings and when I was sick in hospital whilst pregnant didn't acknowledge I was off or even contact me, on my return the hospital stay wasn't even mentioned. Does this sound like like a decent case or do I sound like I'm being childish?

Reading what you’ve put, I don’t think it is pregnancy discrimination. More they just bullied you because u raised a grievance.

I have just reached a settlement with my employer for pregnancy discrimination so I know how frustrated you must feel but honestly, I don’t think you have been a victim of discrimination for being pregnant. X

It sounds like they are trying to get rid of you because you are pregnant to me. But these cases are blood hard to win (which is why they get away with it).

Had they not found out about the references, would you have planned to take all the previous things you mentioned any further? It does sounds like they’re actively looking for a reason to get rid of you- however if they have found one, then I don’t think you can subsequently bring up a load of other things they did in the past, ultimately the two things don’t cancel each other out. Sounds like a horrible work environment OP ☹️

Oh dear, so you've been there less than 2 years?

I wouldn't hold out too much hope in that case then. I think they can dismiss you with no repercussions up to 2 years.

Why have you resigned? How will this affect your maternity pay?

There is what’s shitty and then what’s illegal. The 2 May not be the same

Exactly and this is the problem OP is going to have.

It is going to be very difficult for OP to prove.

I have seen much clearer cases than OP fail.

I think they wanted to get rid of you and have succeeded. I think they have behaved badly but I don’t think you will prove it or be able to get anywhere and the stress/anxiety of doing so will make any legal action very difficult for you with the outcome not being worth it (because I am certain you would not win).

Your SMP won’t be impacted by this but if you get enchanced maternity pay that extra money almost certainly will be.

It does sound as if they were a crappy company to work for with the management being rather cliquey and inclined to close ranks against those who don't fit the bill, for what ever reason.

It sounds as if they were pee'd off that you were trying to start a family within the first year of your employment which is why they kept asking if you were pregnant after your miscarriage. Then they basically began to freeze you out and hope you were put off staying with them.

I'm guessing they've managed to find something to dig up causing a disciplinary action against you with the intention of discouraging you to go back to work there. It's worked, and you've resigned sadly

I imagine if they're organised enough to do this then they're aware of the law and have sailed close to the edge but not quite over it with you enough to pursue them.

I'm no law expert, but i would listen to the posters on here who are and who are saying you'll have trouble proving the above. In a difficult to prove case the stress it will cause you pushing it through is unlikely to be worth any punishment they get.

It's shit. I'm sorry.

You say there are witnesses; as they are, presumably, employees and you aren't, and they will probably have to continue working there, you may well find that actually there are no witnesses.

I fear that if you didn't formally raise a grievance about this you may have shot yourself in the foot when it comes to constructive dismissal proceedings, but you need proper legal advice on this.

EVen if you do have a discrimination claim it must be lodged within 3 months of the date of the most recent act of discrimination. So if the most recent act was in October when you weren’t invited to the awards ceremony then you need to act quick and get legal advice because you will be out of time to lodge a claim sometime this month. The disciplinary issue doesn’t appear to be directly linked to you being on mat leave. So unless you can prove that someone else who also gave references but wasn’t on mat leave was not subject to a disciplinary then you’re unlikely to get anywhere with saying that it’s discrimination. You can’t claim constructive dismissal as you don’t have two years service.

There's some really incorrect advice on this thread.

You have to resign to bring a constructive dismissal case, so whoever said you can't bring it because you have resigned is wrong.

You need two years service for constructive dismissal but not for pregnancy discrimination, so it needs to be a discrimination claim, not a constructive dismissal claim. Which, if the OP had actually seen a lawyer as she claims, she would know.
CD just for being called to face a disciplinary would be highly unlikely to succeed.

The disciplinary is probably weak for them, and for them to dismiss on that would be harsh, but they know the OP can't bring an unfair dismissal claim so they don't care about that.

The rest does sound like discrimination based on the pregnancy and the previous pregnancy. BUT, and again, I'm pretty sure the lawyer will have explained this to the OP, the claim is very likely out of time. The claim needs to be within three months (three months minus one day) of the events being complained about. The most recent event being complained about seems to be last August.

So, in summary, no claim can be brought.