Payout for bank clerk over baby loss sacking

A SANTANDER bank clerk has been awarded almost £20,000 in compensation after she was sacked when she had a miscarriage.

Chi Agbaje was dismissed from her job at a high street branch after she became distressed while miscarrying. The bank accused her of acting in a “wholly unacceptable” and unprofessional manner during the incident and fired her for gross misconduct.

Now an employment tribunal has found she was unfairly dismissed and ordered the Spanish financial giant to pay her £19,702 in compensation.

Mrs Agbaje was on a till at the branch in Bexleyheath, London, when she began experiencing abdominal pain, a hearing was told. The then mother-ofone had been undergoing IVF and had not told colleagues that she might be pregnant.

She told her manager she was unable to carry on and moved to the canteen where she was in considerable distress. Her cries were heard by customers.

She collapsed on the floor during the incident on March 7 2014, the employment tribunal in Cambridge was told. Mrs Agbaje, a customer support adviser, was taken to hospital but lost her baby. She did not return to work until the following October but was suspended and told she was being investigated for gross misconduct.

She became pregnant again and took maternity leave in November 2014. She returned to work in March 2016 but was dismissed for gross misconduct after a disciplinary hearing held in 2017. Andrew Briggs, the dismissing officer, said she had “acted aggressively” in front of staff and customers. Her dismissal was upheld after an appeal chaired by Christopher Fallis, a senior executive, who described Mrs Agbaje’s actions as “wholly unacceptable”.

But the tribunal concluded that the investigation and the disciplinary process were botched. Judge Michael Ord said: “The tribunal have found it difficult to understand how a woman … can be criticised for not behaving professionally when suffering a miscarriage.”

A Santander representative said the bank accepted the findings and take the “flaws highlighted” during the proceedings “extremely seriously”.