Sex bias tribunal retires

Mar 18 2008 by Jule Wilson, The Journal

A FIRM of solicitors specialising in employment law is this morning beginning an anxious wait to discover whether an employment tribunal has judged that it discriminated against a pregnant employee.

Short Richardson and Forth LLP, based on Mosley Street, Newcastle, is accused of causing the premature birth of newly-qualified solicitor Naomi Mainwaring’s daughter Niamh.

Mrs Mainwaring, of Blanchland, Northumberland, told a Newcastle tribunal she had suffered a campaign of bullying at the hands of her immediate supervisor Lesley Crinson, which began as soon as she announced her pregnancy.

The 26-year-old, who claims sex discrimination, told the tribunal that upon hearing the news, Mrs Crinson sat with her head in her hands before finally saying, ‘You are going to get fat and get piles and be really uncomfortable. Well, congratulations.’

On the final day of the five-day hearing yesterday, solicitor Sharon Langridge, for Mrs Mainwaring, said: “It is at the heart of the claimant’s case that these sorts of comments, which we say violated her dignity and were degrading and hostile, were not made before her pregnancy announcement.

“From that point on, the characteristic which is the target of Mrs Crinson’s dealings with the claimant is the pregnancy.”

But Mrs Crinson, of Whitley Bay, now a partner in the firm, told the tribunal her congratulations upon hearing Mrs Mainwaring’s news were heartfelt and that any criticisms had remained about the quality of her work.

Barrister Seamus Sweeney, for Short Richardson and Forth, said: “I submit the claimant’s case has been totally and completely discredited and is based either on extreme hypersensitivity or embellishment.

“In real terms there is not a shred of evidence to support the view that any alleged discrimination was the reason for Mrs Mainwaring’s daughter’s premature birth, and the most cutting of allegations, that Mrs Crinson was responsible for it.”

The panel has now retired to consider its judgment in the case and is due to write to both parties to inform them of the decision.