An employment tribunal has ruled in favour of a trainee solicitor who was denied a permanent job after becoming pregnant during her training contract.
Katie Tantum, 33, was nearing the end of her trainee contract with City law firm Travers Smith when she became pregnant. Despite her belief that her performance meant she should have been offered a permanent role at the firm, she was denied one.
Ms Tantum is now in line to receive compensation after the hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal ruled that Travers Smith had treated her unfairly. Ms Tantum’s solicitor, Nigel Mackay, from Leigh Day, told The Telegraph: “It takes courage and tremendous resilience to stand up to your employer, even more so when that employer is a leading city law firm and you are only just embarking on your legal career.
“The evidence in this case was very clear: Katie’s level of performance meant that she would have been offered a permanent role at Travers Smith but she was denied that role because she was pregnant”, Mr MacKay went on to say.
Ms Tantum confirmed that, whilst her bosses were initially “supportive” of her pregnancy, over the following months, they “just stopped bothering with me”. She was also said to have been criticised for leaving “early” at 6.30am after she had spent all night in the office.
A Travers Smith spokesman said: “We really did not expect this decision at all. We are very surprised and disappointed by it. We will take on board the lessons learnt.”
The level of compensation that will be awarded to Ms Tantum will be decided at a remedy hearing next month.