A woman is dismissed because she is pregnant: the court sides with her and she is compensated with £40,000
You have absolutely no idea how much still, in today's world, pregnant women are discriminated against in the workplace. Until the day before they make their announcement, perfect employees, scrupulous to always be relied on, but from the moment they announce their pregnancy to their manager, they begin to be seen more as a problem to be solved than a woman who is about to go through one of the most complex periods of her life. The story we are about to tell you, which happened in Great Britain, is truly absurd ...
via Daily Advent
The woman at the center of this story of workplace abuse is called Simone Cousins, she is 29 and lives in Northhampton, United Kingdom; for years a perfect worker at the Dovecoat Nursery, a child care facility in her local area, as soon as she communicated to her manager that she was pregnant and that she would need to organize her working hours in another way in order to go to her doctor for appointments, a time bomb went off in the workplace that dragged the two women to court.
Maria Noble, the manager of the Dovecoat Nursery, had initially agreed to give Simone hours of leave to go to her prenatal appointments, but then for the subsequent visits requested by the pregnant woman, the manager did not want to know.
Not only did Maria Noble insist on constantly moving the hours of medical visits already arranged by Simone, but then she had the audacity to push the employee to work in her normal working hours despite suffering from tiredness and nausea before being pushed into a disciplinary hearing for unfounded allegations. Among the claims challenged by Maria Noble, was the one that Simone had falsified the hours worked to fit with her new needs. According to the nursery manager, Simone had claimed 95 hours payment for hours she had not worked.
Obviously due to this accusation Simone Cousins was fired on the spot, even if she wanted to defend herself by bringing her boss to court for unfounded claims and false accusations. The pregnant woman won the case and took home nearly £40,000 in compensation for non-pecuniary damage.
The judge stated that Ms. Noble "was oppressive and domineering towards Simone Cousins, had stated that Ms. Cousins was an honest and trustworthy employee, one of the best and meticulous with her paperwork; however, the court is left with the inevitable conclusion that the reason for Ms Cousins's dismissal was her pregnancy."
Now Simone is the mother of the beautiful Sophie, a three-year-old girl suffering from Apert's syndrome; she takes care of her little girl day and night, happy to be able to be a full time mother and to have received the just compensation from those who did nothing but oppress her unnecessarily just because she was pregnant.
A story of workplace abuse that we hope will never happen again!
