A conveyancing solicitor who had an offer of a promotion rescinded and was made redundant four weeks after telling her boss she was pregnant has won more than £26,000 in compensation.
Mrs Dobson had been working at Michael Cook Law Firm in Seaham, County Durham, for around five months when she was offered a promotion to director. After some negotiation around pay and responsibilities, Dobson accepted the position and revealed that she was nine weeks pregnant.
Dobson claimed that when she told director Michael Cook the news, he said that he would “just have to leave it”.
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Cook told an employment tribunal in Newcastle that he was trying to indicate that it was not the right time to talk about work matters because they were seated in her car, but the tribunal agreed with the claimant’s evidence that Cook meant he would not progress with the promotion to director.
The claimant continued working as a conveyancing solicitor and was not upset about the firm not proceeding with the offer of directorship because she was happy in her position and did not wish to take on extra responsibility without an appropriate increase in her salary.
However, she was made redundant with immediate effect in February 2023. Reasons given for the decision included the firm’s economic position and a downturn in work.
Dobson was not given the means to appeal the decision, nor was she given any warning about her pending dismissal or discussions to see if there were any alternatives to redundancy.
Meanwhile, the firm had been experiencing problems with cash flow and needed to reduce its costs. It obtained a loan to cover its VAT liability, which it claimed was part of the reason why it needed to make Dobson redundant, but the tribunal dismissed this as the loan was not taken out until April 2023.
Bank statements and a profit and loss statement seen by the tribunal also showed that the firm was profitable in the months leading up to Dobson’s dismissal.
The tribunal found that Cook knew at the time he dismissed the claimant that she had less than two years’ service and therefore could not bring a claim for unfair dismissal.
Although she had not been offered a means of appeal, Dobson raised a grievance that disputied that there was a redundancy situation and argued that her dismissal was an act of pregnancy-related discrimination.
At this point, in March 2023, the firm contacted an external HR consultant to deal with the grievance and appeal procedure.
The consultant sent Dobson an outcome letter later that month, but this letter did not address her complaint about pregnancy-related discrimination at all. The tribunal found that the consultant did not make an independent decision on the outcome of the appeal as he did not attempt to meet with the claimant.
The tribunal panel found that the law firm had treated Dobson unfavourably when it decided not to proceed with her promotion after she told Cook about her pregnancy. Her redundancy also amounted to unfavourable treatment.
Its judgment says: “The respondents did not consider anyone else as at risk of redundancy and the respondents did not carry out any assessment of the workforce prior to making the decision to dismiss the claimant. The respondents knew about the claimant’s pregnancy and had decided not to promote her to the position of director because of her pregnancy and this demonstrated that the respondents were consciously, or unconsciously, motivated by the claimant’s pregnancy in their decision-making process.
“In those circumstances, we find that there are primary facts from which we can conclude that the reason for the claimant’s dismissal was because of her pregnancy.”
The employment tribunal ordered Michael Cook Law Firm to pay Dobson £26,474.91 in compensation, including awards for injury to feelings, loss of earnings, interest and a 20% uplift due to its failure to follow the Acas code of practice.
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