Boss' contraception 'taunts' to pregnant worker

Boss' contraception 'taunts' to pregnant worker
By Stephen Adams

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/23/npregs123.xml

A city marketing executive who became pregnant was forced out of her job by a boss who taunted her about not using contraception, a tribunal heard yesterday.


Miss Oh faced a 'hostile' boss


Days after Chia Oh, 29, confided in Rob Tyler that she was pregnant, he emailed her a link to a news report entitled "Effective natural contraception", she claimed.

Miss Oh told the employment tribunal in London that she suffered a campaign of "bullying, harassment and intimidation" at New Star Asset Management after telling Mr Tyler that she was expecting her first child.

The e-marketing executive, who earned £32,000 a year, resigned from New Star in December, three months after giving birth to a daughter, Sofia, following a pregnancy that she said was made "miserable" by her treatment from the company.

She is suing New Star for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal. If successful she could be awarded around £70,000.

New Star, which has 330 staff and manages funds worth £21 billion, strongly denies all her claims.

Miss Oh, who is unmarried, said she faced a "hostile" boss after she told him she was six weeks' pregnant in February last year.

"Mr Tyler knew my pregnancy was a sensitive subject yet he emailed me [six days later] with a link to a BBC article titled 'Effective natural contraception' and commented 'ironic'," she told the tribunal.

"I replied 'Ha ha' to hide my hurt as I was too shocked and upset to write anything else to such an unwanted comment."

While off work with severe morning sickness, Miss Oh, of Colchester, Essex, said Mr Tyler contacted her repeatedly to demand that she return. He also allegedly told her: "Don't bother with the doctors. Get some Lemsip down you."

Miss Oh said: "Such harassment was unwanted and I told Mr Tyler that it was ridiculous."

In an "off the record chat" on her return, Mr Tyler allegedly told her that "people were getting suspicious" and pressured her to tell the human resources department that she was pregnant.

The firm has admitted, however, that Mr Tyler actually went behind Miss Oh's back to tell HR of her condition when she was 11 weeks pregnant, the tribunal heard.

Miss Oh claimed that he accessed her work email to delete personal messages and trawled Facebook, the social networking website, for references to her, which he printed out and sent to HR.

She also said that he pestered her to say whether she would be taking maternity leave in July so he could book his summer holiday.

Miss Oh said she was signed off sick after suffering from stress and panic attacks. She told the tribunal: "The bullying and harassment of Mr Tyler made my working environment so hostile.

"I felt that Mr Tyler's attitude had tainted my reputation and he has lowered my confidence and inhibited my career."

She also said that she was told to forget about pay or promotion because of her frequent absences, despite receiving two pay rises and a promotion since joining in 2004.

She claimed that other colleagues, including the firm's directors, turned against her.

"My pregnancy was meant to be the most wonderful experience of my life, yet the stress from New Star caused a major part of it to be miserable," she said.

"I had no support from New Star and felt I was on my own."

Miss Oh began her maternity leave in August.

New Star subsequently rejected her complaints against Mr Tyler, the tribunal heard.

Miss Oh said the "final insult" was an offer of £3,000 to leave. She resigned in December.

The hearing continues.

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Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Companies have policy when it comes to harassment. Pregnancy slurs are alo included. People need to learn to keep their big mouths shut. It would be the same if a supervisor ragged on a woman for not having a baby. That has happened before, too.

Bosses with an axe to grind with pregnant employees DO need to keep their mouths shut. Main reason being, they can build a better case against them, and it will look legitimate, if they want to can the moo later on. Saying shit up front will only come to her defense if they'd fire her.

Second reason being, why let some hormonal, pregnant moo be your downfall? You KNOW they will bitch and cry about you to anyone who will listen.

And to the moo, yea, cry me a river you slut. Unwed pregnant co-workers should expect comments and remarks. I'm not saying it's right, but a lot of people are still old fashioned: i.e., marriage THEN baby. We had 2 of those a few years ago at my place of employment. Nobody said anything directly TO them but there was a lot of gossip, snickering, and bashing behind their backs. One tried to trap her boyfriend and it back fired and the other was knocked up by some guy she was having "casual" sex with.

I don't understand women these days who think unwed motherhood is okay. If it were me, I would have aborted, but I'd bet dollars to pennies this woman purposedly got knocked up.

The boss does sound like a prick, though, and stupid. He should have kept track of her absences then fired her for cause.

Ok, I know it's mean, but I find it a little bit refreshing to hear about someone being hassled for getting knocked up for a change. I have to agree with the kidfreeluvnlife and Childfree Chicago Lawyer, though- how dumb is this guy? He should have seen a lawsuit coming a mile away. If you're going to fire someone, do it by the book regardless of the situation.