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One of the UK's top legal firm has been fined £40,000 for refusing to allow a female member of staff to work flexible hours. In what should become a huge wake-up call for companies up and down the country an employment tribunal ruling revealed yesterday found in favour of Michelle Langton.
Michelle Langton was a former senior manager at Herbert Smith law firm. The employment tribunal found her former employer guilty of sex discrimination, victimisation, unfair dismissal and breaches of the part-time workers regulations.
The Equal Opportunities Commission is backing Langton’s case, claiming it is “absolutely indicative of everything we are campaigning for on flexible and part-time working”.
Langton was employed by the top 10 law firm for six years before being made redundant last year while she was pregnant. Prior to this she had been working on a part-time basis, including half a day a week working from home, after returning from an earlier period of maternity leave in April 2002.
The tribunal heard that she had come under increasing pressure from a new line manager to work the company’s core hours and had even been told there was no flexibility to work from home and that “childcare responsibilities were not the concern of Herbert Smith”.
The tribunal said that it was not convinced by the company’s argument that Langton’s role could not be carried out on a part-time or job-share basis.
Herbert Smith denounced the commission’s verdict as “one-sided, selective and grossly unfair in its criticisms of named Herbert Smith individuals” and added that it took the issues of flexible working and female retention very seriously.
The company’s appeal will be heard by an employment appeal tribunal next week.
This just goes to show that even the biggest fish are not exempt from the rules - if you want to work from home, check out your entitlement and fight! {mos_sb_discuss:2} |
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