The boss won't allow her to leave work to take her daughter to nursery and she takes him to court: she wins £180,000
Too often women are asked to choose between family and career, as if the two are irreconcilable. A working woman who, at some point in her life, decides to have a child has a series of rights to appeal to and against which her employers cannot really do anything. Yet, too often, we hear reports of pregnant women being isolated from their boss or colleagues precisely because of the pregnancy. Alice Thomson underwent this same treatment by her company and her boss when she asked to be allowed to switch to part-time work so that she could pick up her daughter from daycare. A more than legitimate request which, however, she was refused. Fortunately, the woman got her well-deserved "revenge".
via Daily Mail
Alice Thomson is a hard worker and a great asset to her company, Manors, where the woman held a managerial role. Since her job required her to stay in the office until six in the afternoon, after she gave birth to Alice she asked to be able to have a part-time schedule and, therefore, work 4 days a week until five in the afternoon. Alice's request was based solely on the fact that, every afternoon, she would have to go to collect her daughter from the nursery. A simple request that met with resistance from her boss.
"The company cannot afford this reorganization" and "I also fear that this organization will cause a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand, as well as our inability to reorganize work among existing staff" were among the excuses from her boss when he refused his request.
Alice then resigned and took her company to court, where the judge awarded her compensation of £184,961 for loss of earnings, pension contributions, injury to feelings and interests, as the insistence of the the company in making her work until 6pm gave her a big "disadvantage". However, this is the epilogue of a story that had already begun some time ago: even when Alice was pregnant, in fact. Her boss had contributed to creating a hostile environment around her, even excluding her from some business trips, precisely because of the pregnancy. When she Alice went on maternity leave, she admitted that she felt like she was being fired as she was forced to hand over her company cell phone and office keys. Other episodes in which reference was made to Alice's emotionality followed one another throughout the period of her pregnancy, making her feel uncomfortable even though she was an excellent worker. Not to mention the fact that, during a company party, she Alice heard with her own ears when her boss negatively comment on the fact that he had hired a woman who was pregnant.
Is it possible that in 2021 a woman is still forced to face these forms of bullying and sexism?
