A tribunal ruled that a healthcare support worker had been discriminated against on the basis sex by an NHS board after they failed to provide her with a private space to express breastmilk.
The reserved judgement of the judge found Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board failed to provide adequate accommodations for the worker Ms Gibbins. She told the tribunal she had not been given a bedroom with a locked door when she returned to work after maternity leave in august 2021. The lock cost PS5.50.
The other aspects of her complaint, including maternity discrimination as well as further examples of gender discrimination, were also dismissed.
A male colleague once entered the room as Ms Gibbins expressed herself. She claimed that her employer told her to prop up a chair in front of a door so it would lock.
Ms Gibbins participated in discussions about a missed pregnancy-related risk evaluation by her employer. She also discussed the modification of nursing duties, and grievances regarding absence pay.
The claimant missed work in October 2021 due to ill health. In November, she agreed to go back to work full-time and was informed that a lock would be installed in the office assigned to her for expressing. A new pregnancy, however, meant that she did not return to work until the beginning of December. After a bout with Covid, she returned to work at the beginning of January 2022.
Gibbins was told “things will be different” when she has her second child.
The tribunal was told that when she returned to her job in 2023 there was only a single room with a key lock at certain times. Gibbins had to express herself three times per day in order to remain comfortable. She was concerned that this would expose her to infectious disease and contamination of her milk.
She said that she also felt like a burden and was denied the opportunity to sterilise any of her equipment.
Gibbins was involved in grievances regarding incorrect payslips and pregnancy risk assessments, but the main issue of the case was the lack of a room. The judge ruled that the Respondent failed to provide a room for the Claimant to express herself in privacy when she returned to work in August 2021. We found that Claimant expected and understood that a locked room would be available for her return.
The court found that the missed risk assessment of pregnancy did not constitute unfair treatment.
Judge Harfield ruled that the failure to offer a room that could be locked from the inside was unwanted conduct relating to sex. This is because “breastfeeding relates to maternity, and it is an activity that biological women perform”. The claimant sought privacy because of the intimate nature she was engaging in as a woman. It was related to sexual activity.
The employer did not do this to violate Ms Gibbins dignity, or create a hostile, intimidating, humiliating, or offensive work environment for her. The claimants’ complaints of harassment relating to sex and direct sex-discrimination, pregnancy discrimination and indirect sex-discrimination were dismissed on this basis.
The health board’s witnesses told the tribunal that they had not expected staff to walk in on Ms Gibbins when she was using the ward manager’s office at night.
The hook lock, which was eventually fitted, cost £5.50. The evidence revealed that the estates staff considered fitting the lock as non-emergency work and that they were understaffed because of Covid.
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