A woman whose job was advertised after she told her employer she was pregnant has been awarded €12,500 by the Labour Court. The court found she had been unfairly dismissed because of her pregnancy.
The woman was a graphic designer with Pendrix Display, whose address was not given in the Labour Court ruling. She was the only graphic designer with the company and had responsibility for the poster department.
In May 2000, two months after she started work, she told her employers of her pregnancy and that she intended to take maternity leave from November 24th.
Two weeks later, following one day off work sick, she was told her position had been advertised. She was offered an alternative position on the floor doing shop work. She rejected this because it had no relevance to her skills and involved her being on her feet all the time.
The company said it was offering her alternative work because of medical advice that she suffered from high blood pressure and needed less stressful work. The complainant's doctor denied that such advice was given, or that she had any absences from work due to her pregnancy.
The complainant sought a job-sharing arrangement, but this was rejected by the company, which said she might be off sick on the days she was due to work. It offered her clerical work. Initially she accepted this but two days later offered her resignation, as she considered her job would not be available to her much longer.
In its judgment the Labour Court pointed out that the EC Council directive on the protection of pregnant workers had been incorporated into law in Ireland in 1994. It pointed out that the European Court of Justice had found "that dismissal during pregnancy is largely incapable of being justified".
While the company had not told the woman she was dismissed, the Labour Court found that its actions in advertising her position without consulting her after the announcement of her pregnancy, "coupled with the suggestion that she should no longer work in the profession for which she was trained and recruited amounted to an undermining of the relationship of confidence and trust between the parties such as go to the root of the contract and entitle her to claim that she was constructively dismissed".
Welcoming the judgment, the Equality Authority said it was highly significant as the woman had been working in the company for less than five months and received a significant award.