: Mrs M Kearns Mr KF Watson Mr AB Grant MIss C Stewart v Represented by: Mr S Healey - Solicitor SD Hotels Limited t/a The Anchor Hotel — 2019

The claimant worked as a housekeeper for the respondent at the Anchor Hotel in Tarbert from 16 April to 9 May 2018. She discovered that she was pregnant on 19 April 2018 and did not tell her employer at that stage. The tribunal found that on 3 May she arrived 35 minutes late without telephoning ahead, and that on 6 May and again on 9 May she telephoned shortly before her shift to say she was sick and would not come in.

The central dispute concerned the telephone call on 9 May 2018. The tribunal preferred Mr Thompson's evidence that he told the claimant he was sorry but that was not good enough and that he would have to find someone else to carry out her role, and that he had already decided to dismiss her before she said she was pregnant. It found that at the point he formed the intention to dismiss and communicated that decision, he did not know she was pregnant or suffering pregnancy-related illness. The tribunal accepted that the reason for dismissal was repeated absence without giving notice, which he regarded as disrespectful to colleagues and incompatible with running the business.

On that basis the automatic unfair dismissal claim failed because pregnancy was not the reason or principal reason for the dismissal. The maternity discrimination claim also failed because the unfavourable treatment complained of was the dismissal on 9 May, and the tribunal found that dismissal was not because of pregnancy or illness suffered as a result of pregnancy. It rejected the argument that later knowledge of the pregnancy could retrospectively convert the dismissal into discriminatory treatment.

The tribunal noted that the respondent's employment practices were poor in some respects, including the failure to respond to the grievance and the apparent failure to issue employment contracts or statements of particulars, but held that these matters did not alter the outcome. The judgment therefore dismissed both claims and made no award of compensation.