Good morning, Everyone,

Welcome back to this week’s festive MMD! In the podcast Sam and Nils are joined by Cassie Howard from Leeds Rhinos Netball to discuss the metaverse and the future of sports. In the news, we take a look at a tribunal case involving Mothercare, who were found to have discriminated against a pregnant employee by unfairly dismissing her. 

From us all at Chadwick Lawrence, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

THE MMD PODCAST

Episode 50:  Sports x The Metaverse – A special featuring Cassie Howard

Join Sam and Nils and their special guest, Cassie Howard, of Leeds Rhinos Netball Super League as they discuss the metaverse and the future of sports.

Listen to the episode:  https://bit.ly/3BUnrXo

Listen on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3VV9teW

Mothercare Discriminated Against Pregnant Employee

A Tribunal has ruled that Mothercare, a baby products retailer, discriminated against a pregnant Employee by unfairly dismissing her.

The Judge ruled that Nicola Osborn, the Claimant, had been unfairly dismissed when the retailer created a “sham” redundancy situation to dismiss her, before replacing her with a male Employee.

Mothercare is a retailer of baby care products. It went into administration in 2019, but its franchise arm, Mothercare Global Brand, is still operational.

The Tribunal heard that Mothercare brought in a new Chief Product Officer in 2020, who began a restructuring exercise. As part of this restructure, she planned to bring a Technical Director from another children’s retailer, Mammas and Pappas, into Mothercare. The Tribunal then heard how this plan involved replacing the Claimant, who was on maternity leave, with the lateral hire.

The Judge found that the Chief Product Officer, Karen Tyler, had set out to manage Mrs Osborn out of the business, likely in conjunction with Chris Beeley. Whilst Mothercare alleged that there was a redundancy process, the Judge ruled that this process was a “sham”, highlighting that despite Mrs Osborn having enhanced statutory protection from redundancy through her maternity leave, Mothercare did not offer her any suitable alternative role within the company.

Employees on maternity leave have enhanced statutory employment protection. Whilst it is not illegal to make a pregnant Employee redundant (in fact, not considering an Employee for redundancy on the grounds of them being pregnant may constitute sex discrimination against male Employees), pregnant woman are covered by a ‘protected period’. If an Employee qualifies for statutory maternity leave, this period lasts from when she becomes pregnant to when she returns to work. During this period, if an Employee’s role is made redundant, she must be given priority for a ‘suitable alternative vacancy’ where there is one available.

In this case, whilst the Tribunal did not uphold the Claimant’s claims for sex discrimination and automatically unfair dismissal, they did uphold the Claimant’s argument that she had been discriminated against by Mothercare’s redundancy process. The process was found to be a “sham” and she was not offered any suitable alternative roles. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Our seminars and events have finished for 2024. Keep an eye on our website for the release of our 2025 Seminar Programme coming soon!

 https://www.chadwicklawrence.co.uk/seminars/business-services-seminars/

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS SESSIONS

Through our relationship with Tailored Learning Solutions who provide mental health first aid courses in our business, we are now able to announce that we are running multiple courses at our Wakefield office including the following:

• 23 and 24 April 2025
• 25 and 26 June 2025
• 24 and 25 September 2025

The details of these sessions can be found at the Tailored Learning Solutions website: https://www.tailoredlearningsolutions.co.uk/book-online?category=all-services

If you would like further information and details of the cost for these events, please email carolgledhill@chadlaw.co.uk