Redmans help pregnant employee threatened with dismissal settle claim

Summary

Daniella* was told that she may be dismissed because of her performance but suspected that she had been threatened with dismissal because she was pregnant (she had recently announced this to her colleague). Redmans advised Daniella and managed to almost double the value of the financial payment under the settlement agreement.

Situation

Daniella, an employee at a high-profile London-based fashion house, informed her colleagues that she was pregnant with her second child. Later that day Daniella was asked to attend a meeting with HR; at that meeting she was told that she would be subjected to a capability process unless she signed a settlement agreement. Daniella refused the settlement agreement terms as she had a good performance record and suspected that the treatment that she was being subjected to had been provoked by the fact that her employer had discovered that she was pregnant.

What we did

Chris immediately advised Daniella on her settlement agreement and informed her that he believed that she had potential claims for unfair dismissal (s.94 of the Employment Rights Act 1996) and pregnancy discrimination (s.18 of the Equality Act 2010). After receiving the go-ahead from Daniella, Chris negotiated Daniella’s settlement package with her employer, as well as other terms of the settlement agreement.

The result

Chris managed to almost double the amount that Daniella was being offered under her settlement agreement, as well as ensure that a large part of the legal expenses that Daniella had incurred on her settlement agreement were covered by her employer.

*Please note that all names are anonymised to protect the identity of our clients