Pregnant hairdresser demoted to cleaning and making tea awarded £90,000 payout

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.

‘Having had the majority of her hairdressing duties removed from her by Ms Jury to a very significant degree, as a result, we found most of the duties she carried out were those of an apprentice.’

The tribunal said Ms Flanagan was demoted by virtue of her main duties being removed from her. The removal was motivated ‘because of the announcement of her pregnancy,’ they said.

In January, Ms Jury initiated disciplinary proceedings against Ms Flanagan, alleging ‘underperformance’. The salon owner said there were nine complaints against her which required ‘redo’s and refunds’ and she was accused of providing poor customer service to a customer.

Ms Jury alleged this is why she removed the hairdresser from the online booking but she didn’t tell her because ‘she did not want to affect her confidence’.

But, no evidence of these complaints was presented during the hearing – and the tribunal was ‘struck’ at the fact that many were sent a year after the events. Ms Flanagan was issued a final written warning in light of the disciplinary hearing, the tribunal was told.

This warning became ‘public knowledge’ among staff at the salon who would make comments about it which would ‘provoke laughter’ and made Ms Flanagan feel like the ‘butt of the joke’.

EJ Brown added: ‘We found there was a culture of unpleasant language and inflammatory words being spoken to [Ms Flanagan’ by others and that this treatment was because [she] was a worker on maternity leave.’

EJ Brown – who noted a ‘severe deterioration’ in the relationship between Ms Flanagan and her boss – said there was a ‘wholesale failure’ to investigate and uphold part of her grievances.

The tribunal said inadequate grievance investigation and its findings were the ‘final straw’ for Ms Flanagan.

Now, the mother has been awarded some £89,849.38 in compensation.

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