- Part-time website manager suffered morning sickness told to stop taking time off
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:38 AM on 19th December 2011
Unfairly dismissed? Jennifer Cox claims she lost her MoD job after becoming pregnant
A woman working at a top secret weapons factory claims she was sacked after telling her bosses she was suffering from morning sickness.
Jennifer Cox, 33, began taking time off due to the nausea and to attend antenatal appointments.
She worked for Ministry of Defence police at the Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire, as a part-time website manager.
The Ministry of Defence said she was dismissed as part of an 800-job cull across the department.
However, at an employment tribunal, Mrs Cox insisted that she was a victim of sexual discrimination.
The mother-of-two accepted her absences led to a lack of progress on the website’s development but said she was shocked by the reaction from her line manager, Ray Cross. ‘He just told me to stop going off sick,’ she said.
‘I didn’t want to be sick, I couldn’t help it. I had been suffering with morning sickness, not to mention the pains I was experiencing in my lower abdomen and some bleeding.
‘The threatening and intimidating conversation left me leaving work feeling very miserable and low.’
Mrs Cox told the tribunal panel that when she informed her superiors of her condition it led to her newly formed job becoming ‘at risk’.
She said: ‘I had made the decision to notify my line manager, thinking that honesty was the best policy, which I now regret.
‘Both my line managers, Janine Holloway and Ray Cross, were aware I was pregnant, before they started the job termination process by documented conversations and emails in February and March 2010 where my pregnancy-related absence and time off for antenatal appointments was discussed.
‘He [Mr Cross] told me I needed to make some progress and I wouldn’t be able to do this if I continued to keep being off sick, which meant my post was “at risk”.
The Ministry of Defence’s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, Berkshire
‘It is my opinion that the respondent
is trying to claim they were unaware of my pregnancy to try to excuse
any founded acts of sexual discrimination and subsequent
pregnancy-related dismissal.
‘I believe that if I wasn’t pregnant and didn’t have to take time off, then I would still be working there now.’
Mr Cross said: ‘The decision regarding
the future of the post was a decision taken in relation to the post
itself and not in relation to the individual.’
He also maintained he was not aware
Mrs Cox was pregnant until mid-April.
Martin Downs, representing the
MoD, said Mr Cross was not angry at Mrs Cox for missing work because of
her sickness, adding: ‘All Mr Cross was concerned about was the output
on the intranet.’
Superintendent Paul McLaughlin, head
of the MoD’s police and guarding agency, said Mrs Cox’s dismissal was
part of the severe cuts made during last year’s recession.
‘I was unable to put forward a
business case to support a permanent position or any extension to the
claimant’s contract,’ he said.
The case was adjourned.
A reserved conclusion from employment Judge Robin Lewis is expected in the new year.
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How dare the MoD expect her to be at work to do the job she is paid to do. The economy is never going to get back on its feet all the while employers have to put up with troublesome women.
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This woman was part-time but still could not arrange her appointments for when she was not at work…… a real asset to the govt.
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running a business is very difficult at the best of times but getting maternity cover for a year is a nightmare and then we have to consider flexible working hours, it is disruptive and as an employer it is my worst nightmare, and I would take into account when looking to employ some one if they still have working ovaries, and yes I know it is wrong but I just have to, I always went back to work after 6 weeks off when I had my babies simply because I had to, nowadays with benefits being so easily available, women don’t have to, not an easy topic and I know I don’t speak for everyone
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If everyone decided they weren’t going to have children the human race would die out, someone must have children in order to continue humanity. Unless we want to see a situation where no-one bar the landed gentry can afford to have children we have to accept that PARENTS, not just Mothers, need to work to support their children. Women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. If they have children and claim benefits they are told to work and to be less selfish, if they work whilst pregnant/after having children they’re told to not work and be less selfish, so if they stop work and claim benefits they’re told to work – catch 22……… And WRT Katieconker – let’s examine Haemophilia, a male only disease. Now no women get treated for Haempophilia so that means that men shouldn’t be either. Equality and all that. We should also ban wheelchairs for people with no legs, it’s not fair that those with legs have to walk. Treating people Equally doesn’t mean treating them the Same!!!!
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Give her 4.5 million pound and have done with it.
Ask yourself this,if you had your own business and a woman employee was having time off affecting your profits and livelihood.Would you put up with it?
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Vladtepes,, West Country, 19/12/2011 12:29
Wow what a small minded person you are. I have no problem with women. I have a mostly female family in fact. I’m just speaking from the perspective of an employer. Are you seriously telling me that you would want someone who was going to take months of leave from work, working for you? Like I said before, it is money down the drain.
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Come on Daily Mail, when are you going to get your reporters to report these events accurately?
With respect to Superintendent Paul McLaughlin, he is not head of the Ministry of Defence Police. He may be one of their senior officers, but the head of the Force is the Chief Constable based at their headquarters in Essex.
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Why wont some people realise they’re just not up to the job, it’s responsibilities and their employers expectations and accept they are surplus instead of trying to find all sorts of other excuses for their dismissal?
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An easy way to get some payment. Wonder what her work ethic was prior to pregnancy?
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‘Call the war off-I’m pregnant !’ What are these women doing in MOD anyway-it’s ridiculous !
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