GPs sacked ‘ mother hen’ manager for having baby
A MANAGER at a GP surgery has won a discrimination claim against her doctor bosses after they sacked her for getting pregnant and referred to her as a “mother hen”.
Naomi Hefford overheard the practice partners planning to axe her and discussing what “excuse” they could get away with three days after she told them she was expecting.
The GPs then launched a bogus misconduct investigation and fired her by email when she was in hospital shortly before she gave birth to a girl.
Victimised
Naomi sued for pregnancy discrimination and is now in line for a compensation payout after a tribunal ruled that they had victimised her.
A hearing in East London was told she started work at the Queensway Surgery in Southend, Essex, in November 2017, after being interviewed by the GP partners Michael Jack, Ajith Sivaprasad, Jamil Sorouji, Olanike Aderonmu and Sajid Azeem.
A year later she informed them she was pregnant and had been deemed “high- risk”. Three days later she was left in tears when she overheard Dr Sivaprasad, Dr Azeem and Dr Aderonmu saying they needed to “focus on sacking her” and calling
her a “mother hen”. The tribunal judgment states: “She heard the female voice [ Dr Aderonmu] saying, ‘ If we are going to do this what will be our excuse?’
“She also heard the phrase ‘ mother hen’ and it was after these words that she left the vicinity.”
Naomi, who used her phone to record meetings so she could accurately write up minutes, later realised the conversation had been accidentally recorded on her phone.
Tribunal judges concluded that the misconduct allegations were exaggerated and the reason she’d been sacked was because she was pregnant.
Naomi won her claims against the doctors of unfair dismissal, pregnancy discrimination, victimisation and breach of contract.
Compensation will be awarded at a future hearing.