A pregnant care worker has won £23,000 in compensation after being called ‘unreliable’ by her colleague and receiving ‘threatening’ messages.
Sydney Aris started working for Blossom Healthcare, trading as Curant Care based in Kent, in May 2024, and had a pre-existing health condition which meant it would be unlikely she would be able to get pregnant and any pregnancy would be ‘high risk’.
To her delight however, she fell pregnant a month later in June, but was forced to take two days off work for nausea.
Shortly after, when attending a patient in their home, she was pinched and hit in the stomach by the client, leading her midwife to advise her to go to hospital.
She had started to bleed, and stated that she was ‘frightened that she was losing her baby’.
The colleague, however, responded to Miss Aris’ absences for medical leave by calling her ‘unreliable’ and messaging her: ‘You have been constantly called in sick since you find out you were pregnant.’
The colleague, known as MR, wrote to the pregnant employee: ‘We value your contribution to the team and I understand that in your current situation you cannot help much, but it’s really concerning me your latest unreliability which is making a significant impact on our clients and also on other members of the staff.’
Miss Aris responded: ‘My concern is my health and my pregnancy so that comes first…I have to go to hospital because one of the clients has been violent and that’s a concern of my unavailability’.
Curant Care in Kent, run by Blossom Healthcare Ltd, was accused by a care worker of pregnancy discrimination – a claim upheld by an employment tribunal last month
After going back and forth, Miss Aris resigned with immediate effect over the comments and took the case to an employment tribunal for pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal.
She successfully won for discrimination against her pregnancy on January 6 and was awarded £18,000 by way of compensation for injury to feelings, £2,340 by way of compensation for financial losses, and £2,492 by way of interest on those amounts.
A few weeks after her resignation, Miss Aris was judged to be unfit for work a few weeks later.
She gave birth to twin daughters prematurely in December 2024.
Employment Judge Kathryn Ramsden said: ‘The Tribunal finds that it is absolutely plain from the [Miss Aris’] resignation by WhatsApp that [Miss Aris] was resigning in response to MR’s WhatsApp messages.
‘The WhatsApp messages from MR were unfeeling, ill-considered, and frankly, heartless.
‘At a time when any woman considers she may be experiencing a miscarriage, whether caused by workplace injury or not, to write to her in the terms MR did was cruel.
‘This showed a complete disregard for [Miss Aris], and certainly amounted to a fundamental breach of the term of mutual trust and confidence.
‘This entitled [Miss Aris] to resign in response, which she did.
‘[Miss Aris] said that she has been reluctant to apply for jobs in the care sector, given what happened, and care sector roles typically provide a ready source of employment.
‘The discrimination was overt, and was done in front of others – it was plain to be read in the WhatsApp chat with the on call coordinators for the Respondent.
‘While the messages all took place over the course of a single day, they were threatening – indicating that there was a problem with [Miss Aris’] employment caused by her pregnancy-related absences, which implied that some disciplinary action may follow.’