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An English mother won over $250,000 in a settlement from her employer after they denied her request for reduced hours in order to pick up her daughter from daycare.
In an employment tribunal case, new mom Alice Thompson was awarded £185,000, which is roughly $255,947,a judge decidedon Aug. 12.
The mother had asked her employers at real estate agency Manors if she could end her shift an hour early from her usual 9 am to 6 pm coverage to go get her daughter from daycare as well as a four-day workweek, she told BBC Radio 4’sWoman’s Hour.
Thompson claimed her request was never “seriously considered” and didn’t receive a counteroffer, Thompson told the outlet. “If they needed me for the full hours, maybe eight ‘til five instead of nine ‘til six, that’s something I could have worked around. But it was shut down, every avenue, not listened to, not considered. And I was left with no other option but to resign,” she said.
Manors did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“How are moms meant to have careers and families? It’s 2021 not 1971,” Thompson said onWoman’s Hour.
The mom resigned as a result of her employer’s lack of consideration, which is when she decided to pursue legal action.
“I’ve got a daughter and I didn’t want her to experience the same treatment in 20, 30 years’ time, when she’s in the workplace,” Thompson said on BBC Radio.
In the U.K., employees of at least 26 weeks have a right to make aflexible working requestand get a decision back within three months. Employers have a right to refuse and/or negotiate if they can prove their employee’s flexible working hours request will have a negative impact on the business’ success.
“Here the claimant resented that flexible working appeared not to be considered properly - as in our finding it was not - and felt that this was an injustice because of her sex, which it was,” the employment tribunaldetermined, leading to her payout for indirect discrimination.
The tribunaladded, “Our conclusion is that the respondent has not shown that refusal of the proposed reduction in hours of work was proportionate to the real need of the business to maintain successful relations with.”
The tribunal also sympathized with Thompson in the findings.
Thompson’s payout largely stemmed from “injury to feelings.”
The mother’s indirect discrimination claim was accepted, but the courts ultimately denied her other claims of direct discrimination and harassment during pregnancy and maternity leave and unfair dismissal.
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“There’s a greater picture to trying to make some small change in the world for the better,” she shared.
source: people.com
