Storm Botha, 34, was working at White Lake Cheese in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, when she fell pregnant and was told she was to take a lower paid role at the firm
A pregnant woman told having a baby would “jeopardise her career” before suffering a miscarriage amid her ordeal has been awarded nearly £20,000 in compensation.
Storm Botha, 34, started working at White Lake Cheese in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, as a cheese-making assistant in September 2020 but after two months started working in the office doing marketing work. The hearing was told that after two months at the company, Miss Botha and she was eventually told by her boss she could stay in the office.
In August 2021, she shared with a manager she and her partner were trying for a baby. A tribunal was told her colleague replied: “I thought you were happy here, why would you jeopardise that by having a baby?”
At the time the firm’s managing director, Roger Longman, was on holiday. When he returned the following month, he invited her to a meeting but did not tell her what it was about. The meeting opened with Mr Longman criticising her social media marketing work and her being told she was moving to a different department – in wrapping and affinage – at a lower rate of pay where her salary of £11.00 an hour would be reduced to £9.50.
According to Miss Botha’s notes from the meeting, she said to her boss: “Roger, I’m pregnant, I can’t work in the Cheese Room.” He allegedly replied immediately, saying: “I know, that’s why you will be working in wrapping. Oh, and congratulations.” Tragically, the expectant mother – who suffered panic attacks and struggled to sleep as she was concerned about her job security – later suffered a miscarriage following the stressful ordeal.
Mr Longman insisted he did not know the then 32-year-old was pregnant when he made the decision to demote her. An employment tribunal upheld Miss Botha’s claims of pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal after she represented herself against an experienced barrister during a six day hearing. She has now been awarded £19,266.93 in compensation.
After the meeting, Miss Botha emailed her boss to raise a formal grievance and said she had been completely ‘caught off guard’ in an ‘intimidating and unfair manner’. The email also said: “This is clear discrimination towards me as I am the only member of staff who is pregnant, being demoted to a different department and receiving a decrease in hourly pay. The effect of the ambush meeting has left me distressed and anxious, concerned about the security of my job.”
The following day, the expectant mother messaged her boss telling him she was unable to work as she had “wave after wave of panic attacks that kept [her] from being able to sleep”.
Employment judge Martha Street ruled she was treated unfairly ‘on the grounds of pregnancy’ and that Mr Longman was aware of her pregnancy when he called the meeting. She said: “We are satisfied Mr Longman knew of Ms Botha’s pregnancy before the meeting. [It] was not a relaxed, informal meeting presenting issues over the future of Storm’s role. It was a meeting in which criticisms were made of her work and it led to the announcement of a decision already made to move her to a different, lower paid role, on a short-term basis.
“Revisiting the history, we find a pregnancy-related decision to demote Miss Botha, followed by the decision to make that longer-term, prompted both by the pregnancy and the grievance, an unwelcome and angry challenge to Mr Longman’s decision-making.”