By Charlotte Webster-
A Luton Job Centre employee has been awarded more than £24,000 in compensation for sex discrimination after being victimised by her bosses.
Judge Ord, a relatively new appointee in the judiciary system since 2013, awarded £17,500 for injury to feelings alone, with the other £6,891, completing the sexual discrimination case.
The victim had lodged a complaint about her employer’s behavior after she had two miscarriages with which she was treated grossly unfairly.
Ms. Ann Ginger had been employed as a work coach at the center before she made legal claims for maternity and pregnancy rights, and for sex discrimination against the Department Of Work and Pensions -the department that runs the job center.
The long hearing was segmented into three different sessions at Bedford and Huntingdon employment tribunals from July last year to November 2017. Representatives of Ms. Ginger had objected to The Eye Of Media.Com obtaining and using a photograph of her in our article, leading to a brief disagreement before our editorial granted her wishes. Our efforts to identify and obtain a picture of the boss in question also faced unjustified opposition but is one The Eye Of Media.Com is still pursuing.
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The tribunal was told that Ms. Ginger who has a son, suffered two miscarriages while working for the Job Centre and had various periods off work since 2013 for IVF treatment, and for subsequent pregnancy and miscarriages.
She alleged that one of her bosses allegedly asked her if she could cope with a second child and whether it was a good idea to have further IVF treatment. That question was uncalled for, and also amounted to sex discrimination. The decision to have children is one for a woman to make, not her employers. Any potential consequences of having a child should be for a woman and her partner to make, all employers should be as supportive as possible when dealing with women who have children or plan to have children.
Ms. Ginger further complained that the boss told her that miscarriages were not a bereavement and that in order for her stated miscarriage to be considered, her pregnancy had to be independently confirmed.
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The alleged comments were sex discrimination and harassment, said Ms. Ginger.
She also accused the respondents of refusing her to have time off work, at one stage, for IVF treatment.
Ms. Ginger joined the Job Centre in 2009, and was announced fit to return to work in January 2015, but had requested more time off when her mother died, the tribunal heard.
The respondents opposed Ms. Ginger’s legal claims, arguing that she had been absent from work for 47 days during one period.
Judge Ord ruled in his report that the tribunal’s decision was that Ms. Ginger had been sexually discriminated against and awarded her a total of £24,391.
The amount included £17,500 for injury to feelings.
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