Maternity leave and maternity pay
In Shackletons Garden Centre Ltd v Lowe EAT/0161/10, the EAT held that an employment tribunal had insufficient evidence for its finding that an employee returning from maternity leave suffered indirect sex discrimination when her employer required her to work weekend shifts on the same basis as the other sales staff.
In Johal v Equality and Human Rights Commission EAT/0541/09, the EAT held that the employer's failure to inform an employee on maternity leave of a job vacancy was not an act of sex discrimination.
Claire Benson, Rebekah Martin and Poppy Fildes, associates at Addleshaw Goddard, detail the latest rulings.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, on the facts of the case, an employer did not commit sex discrimination against an employee on maternity leave when an administrative error meant that she was not informed of a job vacancy.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employee who was sick during her ordinary maternity leave was not entitled to be paid contractual sick pay during that period.
In Blundell v The Governing Body of St Andrew's Catholic Primary School and another EAT/0329/06 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a teacher returning to work following maternity leave was not entitled to return to the same class that she had been teaching when her maternity leave began.
In Hoyland v Asda Stores Ltd [2006] All ER (D) 133 CS, the Court of Session holds that despite being described as "discretionary" a bonus scheme was "regulated" by the employee's contract of employment and therefore fell outside the scope of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
In Alabaster v Barclays Bank plc, the Court of Appeal holds that the answer to the problem of how to enable an employee effectively to enforce her right to claim arrears of maternity pay (owed to her as a result of a failure to take into account a pay rise awarded before her maternity leave started, but after the reference period for calculating her maternity pay had ended) lay in removing the requirement in s.1(1) of the Equal Pay Act 1970 for her to point to a male comparator.
Karen Smith and Sophy Robinson of Addleshaw Goddard bring you a comprehensive update on the latest decisions that could affect your organisation, and provide advice on what to do about them.
In Merino Gomez v Continental Industrias del Caucho SA, the European Court of Justice holds that pregnant workers have a dual entitlement to annual leave and maternity leave: pregnant workers must be able to take their annual leave during a period other than their period of maternity leave.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to maternity leave and maternity pay.