Pregnancy Discrimination Award

A Northern Ireland employment tribunal has awarded a woman £45,000 after her employer pretended that she was only working part-time in order to avoid paying her statutory maternity pay.

Ms Quigley worked in a cafe in Londonderry owned by Mr McGrory. She initially worked between 40 and 45 hours a week, dropping to around 30 hours a week after she fell pregnant.

Despite this, when she inquired about statutory maternity pay, she was told by Mr McGrory that only 15 of her weekly hours had been put "through the books", so she didn't qualify for payments.

He subsequently insisted that Ms Quigley should lie to Social Security staff to cover up his action, which she refused to do.