GP surgery manager wins £300,000 in discrimination claim after she was sacked for falling pregnant

A practice manager at a GP surgery has won almost £300,000 in a discrimination claim against her doctor bosses after they sacked her for falling pregnant and referred to her as ‘mother hen’. 

Naomi Hefford overheard the practice partners at Queensway Surgery, Southend, Essex, secretly hatching a plan to axe her, just three days after she told them she was pregnant.

She heard the GPs discussing what ‘excuse’ they could use to get away with sacking her – they then launched a bogus misconduct investigation into her.

Mrs Heford was fired by email whilst in hospital shortly before giving birth to her daughter.

The practice manager sued the doctors for pregnancy discrimination and has now been awarded £294,000 after a tribunal ruled that they had victimised her.

A hearing in East London was told that the practice manager began work at Queensway Surgery in November 2017 following an interview with partners Dr Michael Jack, Dr Ajith Sivaprasad, Dr Jamil Sorouji, Dr Olanike Aderonmu and Dr Sajid Azeem.

During the application process Mrs Hefford said she was asked whether she had children or was planning to have them. Although Dr Jack denied this, the tribunal concluded that he had childbearing ‘in his mind’.

A year later she informed them that she was pregnant and that she had been deemed ‘high risk’.

Three days later the practice manager was left in tears when she overheard Dr Sivaprasad, Dr Azeem and Dr Aderonmu declaring they needed to ‘focus on sacking her’ and calling her a ‘mother hen’.

The tribunal judgements states: ‘Her recollection was that the words were these: ‘We need to focus now. We need to focus on sacking her and then steadying the ship because that’s going to take up an awful lot of time’.

‘(She) also explained that she had heard the female voice saying that ‘If we are going to do this what will be our excuse?’.

‘It was that point (she) says she became very upset and ran away because she was scared that the people in the room were going to hear her.

‘She added that after the comment made by the female voice (Dr Aderonmu) she also heard the phrase ‘mother hen’ and it was after these words that she left the vicinity.’

Mrs Hefford – who had a habit of using her phone to record meetings so she could accurately write up minutes – later realised the conversation had been accidentally recorded on her phone.

The hearing was told that by January 2019 the GPs had decided to sack her and launched an investigation into her conduct, claiming she had been rude in her ‘abrasive’ emails to staff, undermined colleagues and that feedback had ‘no effect’ on her.

They launched an investigation into her conduct and abruptly invited her to a ‘heavy-handed’ meeting without notice.

Mrs Hefford later complained of pregnancy discrimination to HR advisors, who ruled against her, and she was dismissed for gross misconduct last June – while she was in hospital.

Tribunal judges concluded that the misconduct allegations were exaggerated and that the real reason she had been sacked by the doctors was because she was pregnant.

The panel’s judgement continued: ‘The principal reason for (her) dismissal was her pregnancy. We have found that the concerns about the (her) conduct were trivial up to the date on which she announced her pregnancy.

‘Thereafter, a meeting took place which discussed her potential dismissal. The process from then on which ultimately led to her dismissal was connected to her pregnancy.

‘This was the catalyst that started the chain of events.’

Mrs Hefford won her claims against the doctors of unfair dismissal, pregnancy discrimination, victimisation and breach of contract.

The tribunal awarded her a total of £294,372.72 in compensation.