Case 2411318/2019 · Employment Tribunal

Miss C Conlon v Cheshire Retail (NW) Ltd — 2021

Case reference: 2411318/2019
Decision date: 4 May 2021
Jurisdiction: England & Wales
Judge: Employment Judge Phil Allen
Panel members: Ms A Berkeley-Hill, Mrs PJ Byrne

Indexed: 23 May 2026

Parties

2 named

Claimant

Miss C Conlon

Respondent

Cheshire Retail (NW) Ltd

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

The tribunal unanimously found that Miss C Conlon was dismissed because of pregnancy, contrary to section 18 of the Equality Act 2010. It also found that the principal reason for her dismissal related to pregnancy, so the dismissal was unfair under section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and regulation 20 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999.

The tribunal rejected the separate complaint that the respondent failed to conduct a pregnancy risk assessment. It also rejected the complaint said to arise under section 67 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, finding that section did not apply because the claimant was not suspended from work on maternity grounds and therefore the alleged failure to offer work did not succeed.

In addition, the tribunal found a breach of contract because the respondent failed to employ the claimant for the one week notice period to which she was entitled. It further recorded, on the respondent's acceptance, that accrued but untaken annual leave had not been paid, in breach of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

The judgment was a liability decision with reasons given orally at the hearing. No monetary award is recorded in the extracted text.

Claims and outcomes

6 findings recorded

This case has mixed outcomes under at least one legal claim type. A tribunal can uphold some allegations and dismiss others under the same legal head, so rows below may represent separate issues or allegation groups from the judgment.

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Pregnancy and maternity discrimination	The tribunal found the respondent treated the claimant unfavourably because of pregnancy by dismissing her, in breach of section 18 of the Equality Act 2010.	Upheld	Pregnancy and maternity	—
Pregnancy and maternity discrimination	The tribunal did not find that the respondent treated the claimant unfavourably because of pregnancy by failing to conduct a pregnancy risk assessment.	Dismissed	Pregnancy and maternity	—
Unfair dismissal	The tribunal found the principal reason for dismissal related to pregnancy and that the dismissal was unfair under section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and regulation 20 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999.	Upheld	—	—
Other	The tribunal held that section 67 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 did not apply because the claimant was not suspended from work on maternity grounds, so the complaint about failure to offer work did not succeed.	Dismissed	—	—
Breach of contract	The tribunal found the respondent breached the contract of employment by failing to employ the claimant for the one week notice period to which she was entitled.

Legal tests applied

5 references

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.

Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we got this data

Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.

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