A 40-year-old nurse who was fired because she refused to work weekends has won a “landmark” tribunal appeal in what could be a breakthrough for thousands of working moms.
Gemma Dobson had been working as a community nurse in Cumbria, in the U.K, before being fired for not being able to comply with new shift patterns in 2016.
Her employer, an Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust North Cumbria, was introducing more flexible working at the time. That meant staff were sometimes required to work off-peak hours – even at the weekends.
Gemma Dobson couldn’t commit to flexible working hours because of the fact that she had children to care for, 2 of whom are disabled.
The woman was then fired just because she refused to work her hours, with the NHS trust refusing to take her personal responsibilities into account.
After that, she decided to take her case to an unemployment tribunal, citing unfair dismissal and indirect gender discri.mina.tion but got nowhere with her case.
Dobson’s appeal was upheld by Mr. Justice Choudhury., the president of the employment appeal tribunal.
The tribunal judge described the ruling as a “landmark” and added that women’s responsibility for childcare should be taken into account in employment cases, especially in her circumstances.
This man said that Dobson’s tribunal had “erred in not taking judicial notice of the fact that women, due to their childcare responsibilities, were less likely to be able to accommodate certain working patterns than men”.
Dobson said “I am totally delighted with the outcome of the appeal after my utter disbelief at the outcome of the original tribunal. I have continued to seek justice for over four years now for how unfairly I was treated, with continued support from my husband.”
Dobson continued: “Being dismissed by my NHS employer, for not working weekends due to my child-caring responsibilities, was a huge shock. I was so upset, I felt worthless and completely let down by my colleagues and managers,”
“I have dedicated my entire working life so far to be a kind and caring nurse in the NHS. I continued to work as a nurse part-time, despite having a difficult and challenging family life, in which my daughter requires twenty-four-hour care.”
Mohinderpal Sethi QC, who represented Dobson, said: “This is a landmark victory for working mothers everywhere. We sought to show that the claimant was indirectly discriminated against and unfairly dismissed by her employer for being the carer of her two children and are pleased that the president of the appeal tribunal agreed with our submissions.”
But the trust didn’t exactly apologize for what had happened to her
The trust noted: “It is important to note that the appeal tribunal did not find that Ms. Dobson was dis.crimi.nated against or unfairly dismissed by the trust, which is why the matter will return to the original employment tribunal for further consideration,”
The case returned to the original tribunal, which reconsidered the claims of indirect discri.mina.tion and unfair dismissal.
Do you think Ms. Dobson has been treated unfairly?
Source: The Mirror, Twentytwowords.com
