A senior property manager took legal action against her employers after they failed to acknowledge her one-year work anniversary.
Rita Nunn, then 34, sued HES Estate Management for age and pregnancy discrimination, claiming she felt “overlooked” when no one congratulated her in the company’s WhatsApp group chat.
The south London tribunal heard that work anniversaries had previously been celebrated in the chat, but this practice reportedly stopped after staff “complained about the large volume of messages being sent”.
However, an employment judge dismissed her claims, ruling that Nunn had not been treated unfavourably and that such congratulatory messages were not an “entitlement”.
Ms Nunn informed the company of her pregnancy in June 2023, with her one-year work anniversary falling in August that same year. She resigned from her role in September 2023 after taking 10 months of maternity leave.
The tribunal heard that in July 2023, another employee had received a congratulatory message in the company’s WhatsApp chat to mark their one-year anniversary. However, the panel was told that after that time, anniversary messages were only occasionally sent, typically in exceptional cases, such as when an employee reached 20 years of service.
It was also revealed that a message celebrating an employee’s three-year anniversary had been “sent in error” in September 2023.
Ms Nunn argued that the lack of a congratulatory message in her case was an example of pregnancy discrimination.
However, Employment Judge Nicholas Cox rejected the claim, stating: “The failure to send [Ms Nunn] a work anniversary congratulatory message was not unfavourable treatment.
“Other employees would also not, by the relevant date, have been congratulated on first work anniversaries. Accordingly, the claim for pregnancy-related harassment is not well-founded and is dismissed.”
Other claims brought forward by Ms Nunn were also dismissed.
