Miss E Taylor v Domino’s Pizza West Country Limited — 2020

Miss Taylor was employed by Domino's Pizza West Country Limited and became a Store Manager in March 2019. She notified the company in writing on 17 June 2019 that she was pregnant and asked for a risk assessment. The tribunal found that there was a general risk assessment covering pregnant team members, but no suitable and sufficient specific assessment was carried out for her, and no written record of any such assessment was produced. The company's explanation that Mr Colin Rose had carried out a telephone risk assessment was rejected; the tribunal found that account was not supported by any note and was unlikely to be reliable.

The dismissal claims failed. The tribunal accepted that re-dating stock was common in the company's outlets and that the OERs showed repeated food safety issues, but it found no evidence that Miss Taylor was dismissed because of pregnancy. Instead, the tribunal found that Ms Allen dismissed her because Miss Taylor had admitted re-dating stock and training staff to do the same, and because she had not followed the company's holiday procedure. The grievance hearing on 22 July 2019 and the meeting with Miss Taylor on 23 July 2019 put those issues directly before management, and the dismissal on 30 July 2019 followed from them.

The tribunal also rejected the section 18 pregnancy discrimination claim based on dismissal for the same reasons. It held that Miss Taylor had not shown primary facts from which it could conclude that the dismissal was because of pregnancy, and that the evidence pointed to the stock re-dating and holiday procedure issues as the reason for the unfavourable treatment. In relation to the separate risk-assessment complaint, the tribunal held that the company's conversation with Miss Taylor about lifting and close shifts on 27 June 2019 was not a substitute for a specific assessment, and that the failure to carry out such an assessment was unfavourable treatment within section 18 Equality Act 2010.

For remedy, the tribunal found no direct loss and confined compensation to injury to feelings. It assessed that injury as slight and awarded £900 at the lower end of the Vento band, together with interest of £100.41 calculated from 24 July 2019 to 14 December 2020. The total award was therefore £1,000.41.