In person For the v Ms L Habersaath, HR & Compliance at Respondent — 2021

The claimant was a teacher in the respondent school's EAL department on a fixed-term contract running to 9 July 2021. She became pregnant in early February 2021. The tribunal recorded that she did not formally announce the pregnancy to staff until 27 May 2021, although some people may have guessed or been told in confidence before then, and there was no written record sent to or retained by the respondent before that date.

On 20 May 2021 the claimant was told that her contract would not be renewed for the 2021/22 academic year. The tribunal found that the decision was taken because the respondent had decided to redeploy Ms Samia Bashir, a permanent member of staff whose role was at risk, into full-time Adult EAL work. The tribunal accepted that this meant there was no need to renew the claimant's fixed-term contract. It found that, at the time of the decision, it was likely that the relevant senior managers did not know the claimant was pregnant, although one of them may have guessed.

Applying s.18 Equality Act 2010 and the burden of proof provisions in s.136, the tribunal held that the claimant had not established facts from which it could infer that the non-renewal was because of pregnancy. It found the respondent's explanation entirely plausible and, in any event, found that pregnancy was not the reason for the decision. The tribunal also referred to Shamoon, Nagarajan, Madarassy and Ramdoolar in setting out the legal approach. The claim was dismissed.