Published 10 September 2024 at 17.23
Foreign. A middle-aged woman in Great Britain has been awarded SEK 4.7 million in damages after an employment tribunal found that she was discriminated against because of her gender when she received criticism at work despite being pregnant.
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Nicola Hinds, former regional manager of Mitie, sued her employer at a court in Cambridge, saying that in early 2020 she was told by a female manager that she had “enormous potential ” and was very good at work.
But when Hinds told her – now male – bosses about her pregnancy in April of the same year, the situation changed quickly.
In October 2020, she experienced two panic attacks due to the workload and asked to have less work on his desk. But instead of being met with understanding, she received a chilling email from her male boss, Nav Kalley, in which he dismissed her concerns and refused to make the job easier.
Judge Roger Tynan found that Kalley had based himself on stereotypes about “emotional pregnant women” when he refused to reduce her workload, ruling that the manager's attitude towards the woman was “condescending and belittling”.
The court found that Kalley had no genuine desire to support her through pregnancy, but rather wanted to get her out of the way so others could take over her work.
Hinds chose to resign in September 2021 and sue her employer for discrimination, which now means she will receive close to 5 million kroner in damages and emerge victorious from the battle.