Reference no: EM132937241
A female officer who was working in the Falkland Islands informed the Royal Air Force that she was 12 weeks pregnant but her request to remain in her current job was denied and she was ordered to return to the UK immediately.
Her husband also worked on the Falkland Islands and because she wanted to be with him during her pregnancy, she was forced to take leave in order to return to the Islands. This meant she missed her performance review which could have resulted in a promotion.
She took her case to court against the RAF, claiming that she was removed from her job and denied a promotion because she was pregnant.
She won her court case and was awarded more than £16,000. The court said she had been discriminated against and was treated in a way that created a negative environment for her to work in.
The courts made several recommendations to The Ministry of Defence for ways that discrimination against pregnant women could be avoided in the future:
-Each pregnant woman should have an individual risk assessment and there should be consideration for how her role can be adjusted to enable her to remain in her job.
-A monitoring process should be set up for any pregnant women that are removed from their job.
-Each pregnant woman should have a performance appraisal when commencing maternity leave.One of the legal directors explained how pregnant women are the most discriminated people in the workforce and large employers, such as the Ministry of Defence, should be leading the way to show how organisations treat their pregnant workers.