Unacceptable comments from Manager

[JeansJeanies]

Name changed as i'm a regular.
My daughter is having a very stressful time at work and has been subject to some unpleasant behaviour and that appears to be managing out situation

She let work know she is undergoing IVF treatment and things changed from then.

Her role was advertised whilst she was off sick (having the ivf) and she wasn't notified. Found out by chance when a co worker sent her the internal email.

She was accused by a Manager yesterday of 'deliberate gross negligence' for an operational error that someone else was also involved in. Definitely wasn't GN, but a mistake that anyone coukd have made and partly due to poor systems.

Manager also said ',it must be your hormones due to the treatment you're having' when she broke down and cried in the meeting. All this is documented in notes.

She has asked for reasonable adjustments to wfh due to a heart condition, anxiety and hypertensive disorder and the stress of the way she is being treated is overwhelming her.

Management initially said 'I dont think you can wfh, your job is too chaotic'... but I believe it is going to a more senior person.

No In house HR, it is a franchise domiciliary care company.

Tomorrow shes been called to a meeting to discuss her 'new role' essentially a demotion , no consultation thus far.

Ive suggested going for an exit agreement; she can't go sick as she gets no contractual sick pay, only ssp which won't pay her bills.

Any advice most welcome, she is in such a state over this.

She needs legal advice, or failing that - advice from CAB or ACAS.
is she in a union?

But also: get her to contact Pregnant Then Screwed. They will almost certainly have seen this scenario before and be able to support and advise.

Call ACAS asap

Sounds like a work tribunal is pending!!!!

If it's l8nked to IVF it's gender discrimination. She needs to contact ACAS.

Not in a union unfortunately, ACAS have said the IVF scenario is a grey area and pregnancy discrimination is the hardest to prove.

She has no money to throw at lawyers so im prepared to fund one but no idea how much it might end up costing. She isn't on a huge salary and is frantically job hunting. Has been there over 2 years.

No advice, sadly. During my penultimate embryo transfer, my line manager was a bit of a knob when the transfer date landed on a very busy day and known peak month in the year. Despite telling them repeatedly from January 2023 that none of these appointments can be moved and some will be short notice (which they happily accepted at the time). Then October came and I get pulled into a call to ask if I can rearrange the embryo transfer that was scheduled for the next day. I tell my husband what they said "Oh, well the company can pay the fee for cancelling a perfectly decent treatment cycle, can't they?" My line manager eventually came back to me and sheepishly apologised and approved the day off while I was preparing to declare sick on the day to go to the appointment!

It's like the system likes to punish those in need of assistance to start a family, like it's our fault we're subfertile/infertile. My line manager even has someone in their circle who had IVF! Some of these managers have no business managing anyone.

Its their one and only shot at NHS treatment, frozen transfer is in December but her anxiety is so bad due to the bullying im afraid it will fail.

Her manager accused her of intentionally putting customers at risk, used those words..a mistake happened, it wasn't deliberate and no harm done. She said 'call me in incompetent, call me stupid but never ever say I deliberately did something so as to cause harm'. She loved her job and was thriving until this new care manager was brought in.

I’m sorry to hear this. IVF is NOT covered by sex discrimination, but women undergoing IVF are covered by maternity discrimination from the point at which eggs are emoted if removed with a view to immediate fertilisation, or from embryo transfer if not.

the pattern of behaviour starting around the time of IVF and the hormones comment are suspicious. Having said that, it’s a long and stressful process bringing a claim.

she could resign and go via ACAS in hope of a settlement.

Thank you, 3 eggs have fertilised and are viable, frozen transplant in Dec. I dont think she'll be able to cope with a tribunal and I think the costs would outweigh any award.

The manager definitely wouldn't have made those comments to a man .