Laying out your claim
When you are claiming pregnancy and maternity victimisation at Tribunal, you want to clearly argue that you have been treated badly because you have made a complaint about pregnancy and maternity discrimination, or have helped a colleague make a complaint about pregnancy and maternity discrimination. For example:
- An employee makes a complaint of pregnancy and maternity discrimination against their employer. As a result, they are denied promotion.
- An employer threatens to dismiss a staff member because he thinks she intends to support a colleague’s pregnancy and maternity discrimination claim.
- A senior manager upholds a worker’s grievance about pregnancy and maternity discrimination. As a result, they are not put forward by their director to attend an important conference on behalf of the company.
With pregnancy and maternity victimisation, your employer can be liable for the acts of its employees, as well as the employees being personally responsible.
Proving your claim
You don’t need to attach evidence to a Tribunal ET1 claim, but it’s a good idea to back up your claims by mentioning the evidence you intend to use. For pregnancy and maternity victimisation claims, people typically refer to evidence such as text messages, emails, letters, meeting notes, medical evidence and witness evidence.
What you can ask for in your pregnancy and maternity victimisation claim
If you’re successful in a Tribunal claim, you will be awarded a “remedy”. This mainly includes financial compensation, like loss of earnings. It can also include some non-financial remedies too.
Common remedies people ask for at Tribunal
Some of the key remedies you can ask for at Tribunal are:
- The money you have lost from being out of work, or working in a lower-paid job.
- The money that you expect to lose in the future from being out of work, or working in a lower-paid job.
- Wages that you are owed, including holiday pay and notice pay.
Discrimination-specific remedies
As well as the common remedies that you can ask for, discrimination-specific claims also have the option to include an “injury to feelings” remedy. This is compensation which you can be awarded when you have been hurt or distressed because you have been discriminated against.
Injury to feelings is generally awarded within one of three “Vento bands” depending on severity.
For example, Carolyn won a pregnancy and maternity victimisation claim because the Tribunal found that the reason her employer withheld commission payments owed to her was because she had commenced Early Conciliation through ACAS (in respect of her claim for discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy). She was also successful in claims for direct pregnancy and maternity discrimination, unfair constructive dismissal, and detriments because of her pregnancy. She was awarded £20,000 plus interest for injury to feelings.
Real pregnancy and maternity victimisation cases you can learn from
Summary: a branch manager had her maternity pay reduced whilst she was on maternity leave, after the company reneged on its promise to pay her an enhanced rate. A number of issues ensued regarding this and her proposed return to work, which was complicated by the fact she was stuck abroad due to the Covid pandemic. She said to her manager that she felt “discriminated against”, and then later complained to another senior member of the business that she felt she was being treated unfairly because she was on maternity leave. Eventually she started early conciliation through ACAS. After that, her manager made it difficult for her to work part-time and changed her job duties so that she was no longer in charge of the branch.
Total award: £16,904.48
Outcome: the Tribunal found that a significant factor in her manager’s treatment of her request for part-time working and changing of her job duties was the fact that she had raised concerns about discrimination. Her claim for victimisation was successful. She also made a few other claims, and was successful in her claim for unlawful deduction of wages.
Total award: £45,249.07
Outcome: the Tribunal found that the whole approach of the company’s director had been to seek to avoid addressing her grievance and to discipline her instead. She was successful in her claim for pregnancy and maternity victimisation, as well as claims for direct pregnancy and maternity discrimination and automatic unfair dismissal.
Further reading