The paralegal also claimed that her employer had engaged in discrimination
The Reading employment tribunal has dropped an unfair dismissal claim filed by a paralegal in relation to her departure from UK full-service firm Herrington Carmichael LLP, reported the Law Society Gazette.
The tribunal, comprising employment Judge Emma Jane Hawksworth and two panel members, learned that Miss M Gil had resigned from her position as a debt recovery paralegal with the firm’s dispute resolution team. This invalidated her claim since she was not dismissed from the role. The tribunal also rejected Gil’s claims that her employer engaged in pregnancy and maternity discrimination, indirect sex discrimination, and harassment related to sex.
In July 2021, Gil filed an email request with Herrington Carmichael to work from home two days out of the week. According to the judgment, her reason for the request was “so someone is home with the puppies.” Her then-manager, Adrian Taylor, approved the request and suggested that Gil file a formal agile working request.
Gil did not receive a written response to the request, but Hawksworth determined that Gil could reasonably assume that the request had been approved.
After approximately a year, Gil went on maternity leave; on her return, she requested to work from home three days a week. This request was denied; nonetheless, the firm proposed an arrangement wherein Gil could work from home once a week on a trial basis. On May 10, 2023, Gil filed a written grievance and handed in her resignation that month, with a three-month notice.
The employment tribunal concluded that the firm’s denial of Gil’s second work from home request was “not because of the claimant’s pregnancy or because of her being on maternity leave” – it was due to a difference in managerial approaches. Thus, Gil’s pregnancy or maternity leave were not factors in the firm’s decision.
Nonetheless, Hawksworth also indicated that the firm could have responded more effectively to Gil’s work from home request, such as providing a written response to her first request and by advising her of work from home-related concerns.
“Against that background it was understandable that the claimant was unhappy about the required changes to her working pattern which were to coincide with her return to work from maternity leave,” the judge said in a statement published by the Gazette. “However, the respondent’s agile working policy made clear that it was noncontractual and that arrangements could be withdrawn or varied.”
A day after her resignation, Gil received an offer from British Airways to serve as performance development manager, the Gazette reported.
