A pregnant hairdresser who was demoted to cleaning and making the tea after she announced she was expecting has won £90,000 in compensation. Kayleigh Flanagan sued for discrimination after she noticed an ‘immediate change of attitude’ from her employer, Amy Jury, who removed her from the salon’s online booking system in the days following her announcement.
She was soon only told to take ‘walk-in’ customers and spent much of her time carrying out apprentice duties – with ‘nothing else to do but to clean the salon and make tea’. After a ‘severe deterioration’ in work relationships and having two grievances investigated inadequately, Ms Flanagan resigned and sued Ms Jury for ‘unfavourable treatment’ due to her pregnancy.
An employment judge has now awarded her £89,849 after finding her bosses ‘sought to find fault with her work’ and ‘were no longer invested in her’ as a result of her pregnancy. A hearing in Cambridge was told Ms Flanagan started working at Envy hairdressers in Thatcham, West Berkshire, as a senior stylist in June 2019.
Ms Jury, who owned the salon, said e was happy for Ms Flangan after learning of her pregnancy – but had an ‘immediate’ change of attitude. Ms Flanagan said there were ‘major changes to her role’ in light of her pregnancy. Her regular customers were assigned to other stylists against both of their wishes.
The tribunal said Ms Flanagan had ‘nothing else to do but to clean the salon and make tea’. Employment Judge Louise Brown said: ‘We thought it was to her credit that she did this without being asked to. We found that the fact that she chose to clean, and as she admitted in her evidence everybody did if they had some spare time, did not however mean that she had not been effectively demoted.
