A nurse who was dismissed after refusing to work weekends due to having to care for her young children has successfully appealed the Employment Tribunal’s decision in what is being welcomed as a ground-breaking case for working mothers.
An Employment Tribunal Judge allowed an Appeal brought by Mrs Gemma Dobson against a tribunal’s decision that Mrs Dobson’s former employer had not discriminated against her on grounds of sex when she was dismissed. The judge stated that women bear the greater burden in terms of childcare responsibilities and this can limit their ability to work certain hours. The EAT ruled that the Tribunal had failed to take sufficient account of the ‘childcare disparity’ that exists between men and women.
Mrs Dobson, who was employed as a community nurse in Cockermouth, Cumbria, was permitted to work only on Wednesdays and Thursdays after the birth of her first child in 2008. Mrs Dobson’s child was born with a disability. Mrs Dobson then went on to have two more children, the youngest of which was diagnosed with autism in 2014. However, following a review of the matter by the North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust in 2016, Mrs Dobson was asked to work one weekend per month.
As a result, Mrs Dobson brought a claim in the Employment Tribunal based in Carlisle, however the tribunal rejected her sex discrimination claim following her dismissal, noting (among other things) that her colleagues (eight women and one man) worked weekends despite having children.
Mrs Dobson appealed and the EAT held that the Tribunal failed to take account of the fact that ‘women, because of their childcare responsibilities, were less likely to be able to accommodate certain working patterns than men’. The case must now go back to the Employment Tribunal to re-examine her claims.