A beauty clinic manager whose boss tried to demote her after she asked to work part-time to look after her new baby has won £70,000.
Frances Dolcy, 28, was told she would either be fired or moved to a lesser role if she couldn’t return to work full-time at The Beautiful Body Company after her maternity leave.
The employment tribunal heard she was also called “scruffy” for not wearing makeup and properly fitting clothes at work whilst pregnant.
Ms Dolcy, who is now a mother-of-two, has been awarded £73,000 after the tribunal ruled she was the victim of pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
The central London hearing was told Ms Dolcy, a criminology student, started working at the beauty clinic in St John's Wood in 2015.
She was promoted to Front of House Manager in 2017 and later became pregnant with her first child in 2018.
After going on maternity leave in February of the following year, Ms Dolcy asked to work two days a week on her return as she did not have secure child care arrangements.
Her mother had recently suffered a series of heart attacks and her grandmother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
The new mum offered to move to different - but no less senior - jobs within the clinic, the tribunal heard.
But she was told the company could not arrange for her to work part-time in other roles that she had suggested - a decision which she appealed.
The tribunal heard company director, Rudi Fieldgrass, then threatened to fire her if she could not work full time.
In a letter he said: "I have given careful consideration to your appeal of the original decision and stand by the original decision.
"I appreciate that this will mean that you will no longer be working for the company based on the fact you could no longer carry out a front of house position to an acceptable or appropriate standard."
Ms Dolcy responded saying she took the letter to mean she had been fired but the tribunal heard Mr Fieldgrass retracted the dismissal by offering her back her full-time role.
She then received a contract for a part-time role as a senior receptionist - which would have been a demotion from her front of house manager position.
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Mr Fieldgrass emailed Ms Dolcy asking her to agree to either continue full time, accept the demotion or resign.
Ms Dolcy then resigned from her role.
The tribunal heard Mr Fieldgrass held an appeal meeting with Ms Dolcy before her resignation while she was still on maternity leave.
After the meeting, he told her that he expected her to work in the afternoon, which she had thought she had off to look after her child.
He told the tribunal: "The meeting didn't last long, I have still three hours that I'm paying for.
“If I tell her to sit in the corner for three hours, it's my time, surely I'm allowed to say that."
Another executive, Georgia Hewitt, was also found to have called Ms Dolcy “scruffy” for not wearing makeup at work.
The tribunal heard she could no longer take her hay fever medication while pregnant and pollen stuck to her makeup.
And her clothing was also criticised by Ms Hewitt even though she was not given a uniform that fitted her during her pregnancy.
Ms Dolcy won claims of unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal and discrimination.
Employment Judge Natasha Joffe ruled: "What we found linked all of the matters was an underlying attitude that pregnant women and new mothers were expendable.
"Beautiful Body Company had no particular desire to retain them and did not put in place policies and processes whether formal or informal which would prevent discrimination of the sort Ms Dolcy experienced from occurring."
Ms Dolcy - who now has two children, Meelah, 2, and Chay, who is 7 months, said: "They are meant to be a company that are meant to empower women.
"They always made a big deal about International Women's day - it is quite sad that they thought treating me like this was acceptable.
"It made me feel quite low being a new mother going through issues with my mum and her health it was really depressing."
She is now in her final year studying for a degree at Birkbeck College.
