Bullied out of job, I believe due to pregnancy discrimination
Comments
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She took me on, knowing that I was pregnant yes. Because evidently she thought she’d still be able to stick me on 4 hours of deep tissue massage a day (which other staff including her don’t want to do) and me being pregnant would make no difference.
If my columns had be empty I could at least understand her position a bit more I suppose. But after being taken off massage, her treatment of me changed immediately, and my columns were still full of other treatments which I got regular tips and rebookings for 🤷🏻!♀️0 -
OliviaPearl wrote: »I’m a beautician. I had been working for a salon owner who is very new to employing people. She actually contacted me to ask me to come & work for her. I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the time. I told her this & she said no problem.
She was as nice as pie until I had pregnancy complications and asked her if I could be put on reduced massage due to doctor’s advice that I should be off my feet. She had been getting me to do loads of groupon massages until this point and I was getting home feeling exhausted and unwell.
Anyway, since then she turned on me, making up lies about me and accusing me of leaving work early (never happened and when I probed into the facts she warned me never to mention this again) She was hostile towards me, telling me to get out of the way, giving me nasty looks, listening in on my conversations with clients, telling me it was my fault if a client didn’t warm to her. She did a performance review in bad faith and said ‘you’re not going to pass probation’
Other issues;
Didn’t give me payslips and when I asked for them they were not properly set out / vague
Did not do a risk assessment for me and I had to stand up in my breaks as we had no sitting area
I eventually resigned having been off sick due to work related stress. I told her that I did not feel supported in my role and that the accusations made against me were unsubstantiated.
It is very difficult to prove that stress is work related. Although doctors frequently write that on sick notes to be helpful, if it comes to court they can only testify that you showed the symptoms of stress. They cannot say why you were stressed as they are only going on what you told them. For all they know work could be idyllic and you had all kinds of issues at home!
Since then she has tried to say, in writing that I received 8 written complaints about my treatments but she never told me because she didn’t want to hurt my feelings!!!!!
Well you could make a subject access request under the GDPR to obtain copies of these (probably with the names redacted).
I am angry because I have an extremely good work record before this. I have worked very hard for her too and this is the response I get. In my previous workplace I had won awards and scored 100% when I was mystery shopped. At this salon I was getting regular rebookings snd regular tips but she tried to say that people tip even if they are unhappy with a treatment.
Is there any point in trying to make a case against her or is it not even worth it? I am not the first person she’s done this too either.
Were the others pregnant? If not then it helps her case more than yours as it suggests she is not discriminating.
See comments in red above.0 -
Where did you get that gem from? A tribunal is a court of law. They require evidence, just like any other court. You don't "convince" them of things - you must evidence that what you are saying is true and that it is against the law. You have made it clear that you have no evidence of anything that you are claiming, never mind that it is discrimination. Everything you are saying is "evidently", "almost certain" and conjecture. Her case is that she knew for a fact that your were pregnant when she took you on, and had no problem with that at all, but your work was not up to the standard required so you were being reviewed during your probationary period. And what she has is proof that she knew you were pregnant and yet she employed you anyway. Everything else is then irrelevant because if there is no evidence of discrimination, she can dismiss you for any reason she wants, or even no reason at all in the first two years. But she didn't dismiss you, You resigned. That was a voluntary action on your part.OliviaPearl wrote: »So yes, I get that being mean or even bullying someone because you don’t like them is not unlawful. But a tribunal only needs to be 51% convinced that you were discriminated against due to, for example, pregnancy for you to succeed.
Just as a matter of interest, whilst you are digging up these gems, did you find the ones about what happens to people who submit allegations that they can't prove, when an employer can get costs for spurious claims?
You may be correct about everything you are saying. She may be the worst person in the world. But you have no evidence of what you are alleging, it is all guesswork, and you might find the boot on the other foot. You might not want money (although that really is a bit hard to believe) but she might.0 -
OliviaPearl wrote: »She took me on, knowing that I was pregnant yes. Because evidently she thought she’d still be able to stick me on 4 hours of deep tissue massage a day (which other staff including her don’t want to do) and me being pregnant would make no difference.
If my columns had be empty I could at least understand her position a bit more I suppose. But after being taken off massage, her treatment of me changed immediately, and my columns were still full of other treatments which I got regular tips and rebookings for ����!♀️
That is two edged at best. If she knew you were pregnant and didn't take you on (assuming you were well suited / qualified for the role) you may well have had a discrimination case.
However, given that she did take you on in the full knowledge of your condition that gets harder.
Do you have hard medical evidence that the "complications" were actually pregnancy related or could it be argued that you were just "ill"?
Although most employers are wary of taking disciplinary action against a pregnant employee because of possible claims, in theory at least nothing prevents such action if there are grounds such as customer complaints, poor work etc. If she does have such complaints, as she claims, then she was quite entitled to raise the matter with you and take action.
Had you not been pregnant (or suffered some other unlawful discrimination) you would have no legal protection against unfair dismissal due to not having two year's service.0 -
Blatchford wrote: »Where did you get that gem from? A tribunal is a court of law. They require evidence, just like any other court. You don't "convince" them of things - you must evidence that what you are saying is true and that it is against the law.
I think what the OP means is that being a civil case the judge decides the matter "on the balance of probabilities" which is often explained as 51%.That is unlike a criminal case which has to be "proved beyond a reasonable doubt" sometimes described a 99% certain!0 -
‘Where did you get that gem from?’
ACAS. I take it you’re not an employment lawyer?
It’s not conjecture at all. I haven’t posted all my conversations with her on here via text or email because surely that would be unwise. But she repeatedly painted herself into a corner accusing me of things and when I asked her for the date she refused, backtracked, tried to shift the issue and if I asked her for evidence she became threatening ‘you’d better not mention this again to anyone’
My consultant didn’t say I was ill, he said I should be off my feet due to bleeding in the pregnancy.0 -
OliviaPearl wrote: »‘Where did you get that gem from?’
ACAS. I take it you’re not an employment lawyer?
It’s not conjecture at all. I haven’t posted all my conversations with her on here via text or email because surely that would be unwise. But she repeatedly painted herself into a corner accusing me of things and when I asked her for the date she refused, backtracked, tried to shift the issue and if I asked her for evidence she became threatening ‘you’d better not mention this again to anyone’
My consultant didn’t say I was ill, he said I should be off my feet due to bleeding in the pregnancy.
Nor are the people who staff the ACAS helpline!0 -
‘Were the others pregnant? If not then it helps her case more than yours as it suggests she is not discriminating.’
The other situations I’ve heard of are not quite the same sort of situation but involve unfair deductions from people’s wages or they were working for her for some time and she didn’t even ask for their bank details so that they could be paid.0 -
OliviaPearl wrote: »‘Where did you get that gem from?’
ACAS. I take it you’re not an employment lawyer?
It’s not conjecture at all. I haven’t posted all my conversations with her on here via text or email because surely that would be unwise. But she repeatedly painted herself into a corner accusing me of things and when I asked her for the date she refused, backtracked, tried to shift the issue and if I asked her for evidence she became threatening ‘you’d better not mention this again to anyone’
My consultant didn’t say I was ill, he said I should be off my feet due to bleeding in the pregnancy.
Nobody here (well certainly not me) are saying you haven't been badly treated or don't have a case, obviously based on just one side of the story.
However what we are doing is highlighting the difficulties you will face in bringing one. You need to seek proper professional advice which is not the function of the ACAS helpline.0 -
They might. But they would still need evidence to come to that conclusion and the poster doesn't have any. What is more likely, and I come across this all too often, is that people think that tribunals hear both sides of an argument and come to a conclusion about who to believe. That is arbitration, and employment tribunals do not arbitrate, they rule on points of law. Without any evidence, and the poster is saying that she has no evidence despite her wanting to believe she has, then it is in danger of being a spurious claim. That contention would actually be strengthened rather than weakened by a good lawyer arguing that the employer knew full well she was pregnant, that she had no problem with that (a very credible argument given that most of us know that many employers wouldn't employ someone who is pregnant anyway, no matter what the law says), that the posters performance was poor and when she was pulled up on this, she resigned and began making spurious and libellous /slanderous comments about her poor employer being discriminatory etc.,etc.Undervalued wrote: »I think what the OP means is that being a civil case the judge decides the matter "on the balance of probabilities" which is often explained as 51%.That is unlike a criminal case which has to be "proved beyond a reasonable doubt" sometimes described a 99% certain!
The poster may not like it, but based on the facts that she has provided, that is a far more convincing and evidencedclaim than the one she is putting forward. Truth isn't always what matters. Evidence is something that always matters.0
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