A pregnant worker who said she was threatened with having her pay cut off if she did not agree to sign off on terminating her previously open-ended contract has won over €136,000 for discrimination.
The change meant the worker, procurement consultant Raquel Vieira dos Santos Silva, was left jobless just two-and-a-half weeks after starting maternity leave.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has now ordered her former employer, eTeam Workforce Ltd, to pay her one of the largest sums awarded to a claimant before the employment tribunal in 2024 on foot of statutory complaints of unfair dismissal and pregnancy-related discrimination.
Ellen Walsh, appearing instructed by Sean Ormonde & Co Solicitors, told the tribunal that Ms dos Santos Silva started at eTeam on December 12th, 2022, having been issued with a contract the month before. The contract, for a full-time role as a category sourcing consultant earning around €62,000 a year “did not specify an end date”, it was submitted.
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The worker told the company’s management that she was pregnant in July 2023 and advised them that she thought she would look to take maternity leave in February 2024, the tribunal was told.
In evidence, Ms dos Santos Silva said she ‘did not have any reason to doubt she was a permanent employee’ until after she said she was pregnant, the tribunal noted
The company, which is part of a multinational staffing agency which places contract workers in a variety of fields, contested the complaints. Its representative, Ishita Baghel, said in evidence that the omission of an end date from the contract was “an error” and that it was the company’s practice to issue all staff it placed as contractors with an “addendum” to their contracts.
“The client did not wish to renew the complainant’s contract, so her contract came to an end in February 2024,” Ms Baghel stated. Ms dos Santos Silva’s contract addendum “was to match the end date of the client’s contract”, Ms Baghel added.
In evidence, Ms dos Santos Silva said she “did not have any reason to doubt she was a permanent employee” until after she said she was pregnant, the tribunal noted.
She told the WRC she was “very upset” about her employer’s efforts to get her to sign an amended contract and refused to sign after taking legal advice. However, she said she learned late in 2023 that she would not be paid in January and February 2024 if she did not sign.
Ms Walsh stated that representatives of eTeam “repeatedly telephoned and emailed” Ms dos Santos Silva about the contract change.
“Eventually, under the duress of the threat of loss of income immediately prior to the birth of her child, the claimant was forced to sign,” Ms Walsh submitted.
Ms dos Santos Silva started her maternity leave on 5 February 2024 and was left out of work upon the termination of the contract on 29 February.
Her evidence was that she was “extremely upset” about what happened to the point where she required medical help and therapy.
In her decision, adjudicator Gaye Cunningham wrote: “To unilaterally change the end date of the employee’s contract in the instant case was particularly egregious, especially when she had notified the respondent of her pregnancy.”
“I note and accept the complainant’s evidence that she was put under pressure to sign an amended contract,” she added.
Ms Cunningham awarded Ms dos Santos Silva €124,800 in compensation for gender and pregnancy discrimination in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998.
The adjudicator also made an order under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 directing eTeam Workforce Ltd to pay the complainant €11,400 for three months’ loss of earnings arising from the discriminatory dismissal. The total sum awarded to Ms dos Santos Silva in the case was €136,200.
This story was updated on December 2 to correct the name of the adjudicator to Gaye Cunningham
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