A company told a marketing manager that her post was at risk of redundancy just hours after she informed her employer that she was pregnant.

The pregnant woman was subsequently made redundant and now Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudicator Conor Stokes has ordered the company to pay compensation. Mr Stokes stated that he considers the €55,477 award “to be effective, proportionate and dissuasive and appropriate in all the circumstances of this case”.

In his report Mr Stokes stated that the marketing manager informed her employer that she was pregnant on the morning of July 29, 2019.

He stated that in the afternoon, the firm informed her for the first time that she was being considered for redundancy.  The woman was made redundant on September 13, 2019 with effect from October 15, 2019. Mr Stokes said: “It is settled law that the period of pregnancy amounts to a specially protected period.”.

The employer submitted that in the Spring of 2019 it commenced a restructuring process. It further argued that on July 22, 2019 it drafted a document entitled ‘Business Case for Proposed Redundancies’ where it identified the marketing manager's role as one at risk of redundancy.

The company submitted that the existence of this document establishes that the decision to make the complainant redundant predates the notification of the complainant’s pregnancy.

However in his findings, Mr Stokes stated: “I am not satisfied that it has been adequately established that this document predates the notification of the pregnancy to the respondent.”

Solicitor for the woman, Marie Brody of Carlow firm, Brody and Company Solicitors stated yesterday: "We are happy with the outcome in the case. The client is satisfied and she feels vindicated by the WRC’s adjudicator’s ruling."

However, Ms Brody revealed that the employer has appealed the ruling to the Labour Court. Ms Brody said that the dismissal resulted in causing her client and her family “a lot of stress.”  

Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan, who was not part of  the case said the award "has to be seen as a significant warning to employers.”