Unfair Dismissal - Morning Sickness 

Employers are generally under the impression that an employee cannot bring a claim in the Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal if they have worked for the employer for less than 2 years. This can be a dangerous and sometimes costly mistake!

Employers should be aware that dismissing employees for discriminatory reasons (and some other certain circumstances) allows an employee to bring a claim against them for automatic unfair dismissal, even if they have been employed for less than 2 years.

Employees are not to be discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010. This Act outlines various protected characteristics, including pregnancy and maternity.

Last year a firm employed a pregnant administrator from 18th March 2019 - 25th March 2019. She was absent from work for two days during this time due to extreme morning sickness. The employer dismissed the employee by email on 25th March 2019 stating that they could not rely upon her due to her illness.

The employee brought a claim in the Employment Tribunal for automatic unfair dismissal, among other claims.

The Employment Tribunal found that the employee had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against. The employee had not been told in advance that there was a problem, nor given a chance to meet to discuss or investigate any issues. It therefore also found that the employer had failed to follow the ACAS code of practice in relation to Disciplinary and Grievance procedures resulting in a 20% uplift to the employee's claim for compensation.

In total the Tribunal made an award of over £23,000. An expensive error on the part of the employer considering the employee had only been employed for 1 week!