pregnant and fired!

[fedupofthis]

A friend of mine announced to her work that she's expecting in September 2010. She works for a fairly big company and at the moment she's working for this company through an agency on a six month "training" programme. At the end of the six month period which is due next month she will be offered a permanent contract. Since making her announcement the company rang the agency and said they do not want her to return because of the pregnancy!!!

This seems totally wrong and illegal and I was wondering if anybody had any advice for her.

It's very wrong! But she doesn't work for them, does she? Don't know if employment law covers agency cover. I know when I ran a care agency years ago, our customers were free at any time to tell us they didn't want a particular person back - for any reason, for no reason. Because we were the employer, not our customer, there wasn't anything to be done about it.

Get her to call ACAS and the Equalities Commission or whatever it's called these days - the successor body to the Equal Opps Commission.

Sounds all wrong but working through an agency may have implications. She needs advice from someone qualified to give it.

Well when she told her manager he said, she had nothing to worry about and her job was safe. She was basically promised a permanent contract
starting next month until she said she was pregnant.

Thanks for your advice, I'll pass it on to her!

She's protected just like an employee because it can be discrimination not to offer a job as well as to dismiss from one, so they can't use the agency as a shield.

Actually drafting the claim might be quite technical though, so I'd recommend finding a no win no fee solicitor or checking whether her household insurance has a legal fee cover section. It's worth getting an expert.