A woman has been awarded over £11,000 after an employment tribunal found she had been unfairly treated by her employer for taking maternity leave, reports People Management.
Ms Walworth was employed by Scrivens, a chain of opticians. They sponsored her to obtain a dispensing optician qualification and she signed an agreement to the effect that if she left Scrivens within three years of qualifying she would be required to pay back the training costs, which amounted to £11,000.
She obtained her qualification in December 2014 and notified the company of her pregnancy in August 2015. Before she started her maternity leave in April 2016 the company notified her that she was only 16 months into the three years she was required to work post-qualification. She was also told her maternity leave wouldn’t count towards this post-qualification period i.e. the clock would effectively stop while she was on maternity leave and only restart once she returned to work.
Ms Walworth was due to return from maternity leave in April 2017. She requested to extend her time off work as her daughter had been unwell but this was denied. She was also warned that if she resigned she would have to pay back the £11,000 training costs.
Ms Walworth resigned in March 2017, claiming that she had been mistreated for taking maternity leave. Her employer demanded payment of the £11,000.
She took her case to a tribunal, claiming that she had been misled by Scrivens over the terms of the training costs agreement she signed. They had told her it contained a clause allowing them to pause the three-year post-qualification period while she was on maternity leave, but in reality no such clause existed.
The tribunal agreed that the “use and imposition” of this clause amounted to unfavourable treatment and was therefore unlawful discrimination.
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