Case in point: Treating maternity leavers too favourably
Caught between a rock and a hard place: too favourable a treatment of employees on maternity leave during a redundancy process can lead to discrimination issues.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal decision in Eversheds Legal Services Limited v Mr J De Belin has highlighted the difficulties facing employers who, in a bid to avoid discriminating against employees on maternity leave, inadvertently discriminate against their male colleagues at work.
What happened in this case?
An employee on maternity leave had received the maximum score possible for one of the redundancy criteria, namely ‘lock-up’ – the length of time between carrying out work for a client and receiving payment for it – in an attempt to ensure that she was not treated less favourably due to her absence on maternity leave. The other (male) employee in the redundancy pool received a lesser score, based on his actual results. He won his sex discrimination case against his employer.
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