A HR worker won £28,000 in a discrimination claim after being ordered to clean toilets after she returned from maternity leave. Sabbah Messum was demoted to housekeeping duties by her boss, who was attempting to 'degrade and humiliate' her in an attempt to force her to leave, an employment tribunal heard.
The panel concluded that the 38-year-old mother of three was the victim of a 'discriminatory regime' which penalised pregnant workers by creating a 'hostile' and 'intimidating' environment for them. She has now been awarded a total of £28,107.11 in compensation for injury to feelings.
The hearing was told that highly educated Mrs Messum, who has an MBA and represented herself at the hearing, started work as an executive and HR assistant at employee providers Bradford Management Services in Leeds in January 2019 she told her employers she was pregnant and would go on maternity leave later that year, the tribunal heard.
But her boss became angry and began criticising her work performance, the hearing was told. Dr Gul Nawaz Akbar, the then head of technical and compliance, started shouting at her frequently and ordered her to do physically demanding work.
The Leeds tribunal heard his attitude towards Mrs Messum, who is married and from Bradford, reflected a history of negative reactions to employees' pregnancies.
In an earlier incident, he had even directed her to 'get rid of' another worker who had announced she was expecting. Mrs Messum had time off in April 2019 with a pregnancy related illness before going on maternity leave and giving birth to daughter Inaya in June of that year.
The tribunal heard that Dr Akbar deliberately refused to pay her sick leave as a means of 'punishment and control'.
Mrs Messum was falsely accused by the company of stealing food from the canteen and instructed to attend an investigatory meeting, first during her pregnancy-related sickness absence, and then during her maternity leave.
Her bosses warned her that if she did not attend, she might face a disciplinary hearing. When she explained that she could not attend a meeting because of her newborn baby, her employer then wrote to her asking to meet her at her home to conduct the meeting.
Mrs Messum wrote to her employers, saying that she 'could not stop thinking about' the accusation, which was 'haunting her' and had left her feeling 'disturbed and embarrassed'.
The tribunal concluded this was part of Dr Akbar's attempt 'to create a hostile or intimidating environment for her'. Mrs Messum returned to work in May the following year where she was relieved of her HR duties and told to do sales work and, later, housekeeping duties, including cleaning.
The tribunal heard that Dr Akbar had made other digs at Mrs Messum, including one occasion when she was hiring a new administrative assistant when Dr Akbar told her that the person should be 'presentable, not like you'.
Dr Akbar was criticising Mrs Messum for paying people sick pay and told her that the company 'cannot carry luggage', which the tribunal said referenced 'his unwillingness to pay sick pay and his view that employees on sickness absence were dead weight'. She resigned in February 2021 and sued the company for pregnancy discrimination, harassment and unfair dismissal.
Employment Judge Sarah-Jane Davies said: "She could see that Dr Akbar was treating her in the same way he had treated other women and knew that he wanted to get rid of her.
"She considered that the allegation of theft and demoting her to do general clerical work and housekeeping, including toilet cleaning, were to degrade and humiliate her and force her to leave the company.
"This was not a one-off act with continuing consequences, but was the operation of a discriminatory regime, or an ongoing state of affairs in which [Mrs Messum] was treated unfavourably."
Mrs Messum's complaints of unfair dismissal, unauthorised wage deduction, harassment related to sex, and pregnancy/maternity discrimination succeeded. Other issues, including a complaint of direct sex discrimination, were dismissed.
After being awarded the compensation, Mrs Messum - who now works as an analyst for Morrisons - said: "I was told I didn't have a chance to win but I knew I was doing the right thing. I wanted other pregnant women to know how to get help on how to save themselves."
