I was sacked for being pregnant

Apr 6 2007 By Patrice John & Emma Cullwick, Birmingham Mail

A MUM-of-one was celebrating today after winning a legal battle with her former company who sacked her when she became pregnant.

A Birmingham employment tribunal has ruled that Jennie Ingram was sacked by recruitment company Spring Technology as a result of direct sex discrimination .

Now she is expecting to get a big compensation award next week.

But the company said it was "extremely disappointed" at the tribunal's decision and will be lodging an appeal.

Ms Ingram had spent five years working her way up the ladder at recruitment company Spring Technology and had become a successful junior manager, in charge of a small team.

When the 31-year-old, who earned £19,000 a year, discovered she was going to have a baby she was thrilled, and told her line manager the news when she was nine weeks pregnant in September 2005.

But her joy soon turned to despair when the company, based in The Crescent, at Birmingham Business Park, Solihull, told her she was being made redundant for "operational reasons".

Outraged, married Ms Ingram, of Cradley Heath, took the firm to the tribunal, claiming she had been sacked as a result of direct sex discrimination .

It has now ruled in her favour and on Wednesday she will be back at the tribunal to discover how much compensation Spring Technology will be ordered to pay her.

"This has been a real strain on both myself and family but I feel vindicated that the tribunal accepted I had been discriminated against," said Ms Ingram, whose son Morgan, is now 13 months old after being born in March 2006. "I find it unbelievable in this day and age that such a large company can treat their staff in this way."

She said it has been a lengthy battle to re-build her self-esteem and only found a new job last December with West Midlands Police, where she works as a crime assessor collating criminal statistics.

"My confidence was depleted, even when I started a new job," she added. "But now my colleagues can see that I have started to get that back."

Her solicitor Siân Owen said the tribunal outcome was a rare victory.

"Normally it can be very hard to prove direct sex discrimination and this is a rare triumph," she said. "Jennie has endured a long and difficult 18 months which has impacted on the birth of her son and her enjoyment of motherhood.

"This proves that women can make a stand and call large organisations to account for their out-dated policies towards women."

But today, a spokesman for Spring Technology said the company was set to appeal.

"We are extremely disappointed with the decision of the tribunal in this case," he said. "Jennie Ingram was a valued member of staff and the company sincerely regrets that she was made redundant.

"We maintain that there was a genuine reason for her redundancy and that we followed due process in this case.

"Ms Ingram chose not to apply for any other jobs at Spring during the redundancy consultation process."

He said she was given a fair financial settlement when she left the firm, which represented all the maternity pay that she would have been entitled to had she remained an employee.

"The tribunal proceedings therefore came as a complete surprise to us," he added. "This is the first time the company has ever been found by a tribunal to have committed discrimination against its employees in any form."