Sarah Lindup won a ‘Millionaire Award’
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An award-winning saleswoman who said she was laughed at by her boss when she asked to return to her role after giving birth has won a maternity discrimination case.
Sarah Lindup, 27, said that before she took maternity leave she was ‘very successful’ in Manchester-based Bright HR Ltd’s web team sales department, the tribunal in heard.
Ms Lindup gave birth to her daughter and went on maternity leave in February 2022, but after a new sales boss was hired she lost her former role, the tribunal was told. She began working in the web team in June 2021 and was earning around £65,000 before her time off, the tribunal heard.
Ms Lindup said she had talked about returning to her former role with her then head of sales.
She attended the firm’s awards ceremony at Hotel Football near Old Trafford in May 2022 and was given two awards for being a both a ‘notably high-performing sales operative’ and a ‘highly-regarded team member’.
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This included a ‘Millionaire Award’ as she had made £1.3m for the company in a year, without working the full 12 months, the tribunal heard. Jayde Stott became the new head of sales and the pair had a meeting in October 2022 where they discussed Ms Lindup’s return to work the following month.
Ms Lindup said that when she mentioned returning to the same team, Ms Stott told her this would not be happening. The claimant added: “She laughed as though my returning to the web team was a ludicrous idea.”
Employment Judge Abigail Holt said it was ‘striking’ that the manager repeatedly referred to the meeting as a ‘mum-to-mum chat’ despite it being a formal meeting. She added: “This is a very significant undermining or degrading of the claimant’s employment status.”
The tribunal found that Ms Stott’s manner was deliberately ‘defensive and potentially insensitive’. Ms Lindup said her income dropped to around £24,000 after returning from maternity leave, which the tribunal found had “disastrous personal consequences”.
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Judge Holt said: “It was irrational for the respondent not to redeploy their award-winning web team member, who only months earlier they had feted, back to the position where she had a track record of bringing in £1.3m in sales for them in less than a year.
“On the balance of probabilities, the only conceivable reason for the sudden volte-face in the respondent’s attitude towards the claimant, and the resulting massive loss of remuneration, was her maternity leave.
“The maternity leave was not a background, contextual issue. We find that this was the fundamental matter and the vehicle whereby, through Jayde Stott, the claimant could be ‘gifted’ the disadvantageous role.”
The judge said Ms Lindup’s complaint of maternity discrimination was well-founded and a remedy hearing has been scheduled for a later date.
A spokesperson for Bright HR said it would be appealing the tribunal decision and couldn’t comment further as a result.