Greatwell Homes ordered to pay £50,000 at employment tribunal after maternity leave dispute

A north Northamptonshire social housing provider has been ordered to pay £50,000 at employment tribunal to one of its former employees.

Wellingborough-based Greatwell Homes Ltd faced the tribunal after the member of staff claimed she had ‘suffered a detriment’ while on maternity leave.

Ruled on by a panel of three members including Employment Judge R Wood, the judgment found employee Miss R Smith had been treated ‘less favourably’.

After the hearing at Cambridge County Court held in June, the court ordered Greatwell Homes Ltd to pay £50,000 to Miss Smith.

The judgment said: “The Claimant (Miss Smith) was treated less favourably by the respondent (Greatwell Homes Ltd) on the grounds that she was on maternity leave at the relevant time contrary to section 18 of the Equality Act 2010.

“The claimant suffered a detriment in the grounds that she was on maternity leave at the relevant time contrary to section 47(C) of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

"Upon agreement between the parties, the respondent must pay to the claimant the sum of £50,000 in total in respect of the above matters.”

Employment law states that an employee has the right not to be subjected to ‘any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, by their employer done for a prescribed reason.’

Prescribed reasons include pregnancy, childbirth, maternity leave adoption leave, shared parental leave, parental leave, paternity leave and parental bereavement leave.

Greatwell Homes was given notice of the court’s finding at the end of last month.

Julie Robinson, executive director at Greatwell Homes, whose remit includes responsibility for HR, said: “We take our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion at work very seriously and pride ourselves on being a flexible employer of choice.

“We take a proactive approach to ensuring staff and customers are treated fairly with monitoring and actions undertaken by our employee diversity working group and our ongoing work with the Housing Diversity Network to becoming an accredited organisation.

“This tribunal case relates back to 2020 and we recognise our focus needs to be on taking the time to reflect fully and consider any learnings and recommendations from the employment tribunal’s ruling.”

Greatwell Homes manages thousands of homes in Wellingborough, Kettering and Raunds.