Woman ‘degraded and humiliated’ after returning from maternity leave awarded £28,000

Sabbah Messum was “effectively demoted” and ordered to clean toilets when she returned to work at Bradford Management Services Ltd, paid less than the minimum wage and “wrongly disciplined for stealing food”, an Employment Tribunal heard.

The mother-of-three, who worked as an executive and HR assistant, said she felt “hopeless and defeated” when she eventually resigned in February 2021.

At a recent hearing, Employment Judge Sarah-Jane Davies ruled that Ms Messum should be awarded £28,107, after she lodged successful complaints about her unfair dismissal, unauthorised deduction from wages and harassment.

More than £18,000 of that sum was awarded to compensate her for “injury to feelings”, suffered while she was working for the company which recruits staff for the restaurant group Mumtaz.

“At a vulnerable time, when she was sick and expecting a baby, she was upset, stressed and worried. After the baby was born, she continued to struggle mentally,” the judge said.

“When she returned to work, she felt ‘small and scared’ all the time, from May 2020 until February 2021. She was not sleeping, and she constantly felt angry and stressed.”

Dr Gul Nawaz Akbar, former owner and managing director of the company, and his son Bilal Akbar both denied wrongdoing at the tribunal in Leeds, but the judge said they were “fundamentally lacking in credibility”.

The tribunal heard that when Mrs Messum returned from maternity leave in May 2020, she was “effectively demoted” as she was stripped of her HR duties and ordered to carry out “menial tasks” like laundry and cleaning.

The judge accepted she was “prevented from carrying out her HR duties” because of “Dr Akbar’s personal negative approach towards her following her pregnancy and maternity leave”.

Mrs Messum, who contracted to earn the national minimum wage, provided the tribunal with records which showed she had worked 205 hours of unpaid overtime since returning from maternity leave.

She was also given a verbal warning for stealing food from the canteen even though her manager Shokaib Karim gave her permission to take it home.

The judge ruled she had been “wrongly disciplined for stealing food” and her employer had not followed “any fair process”.

She also said Mrs Messum “was constructively dismissed” by the company as it had “fundamentally breached” her contract on numerous occasions.

The judge’s ruling stated: “Her evidence was that she resigned because of the hostile environment created by Dr Akbar and Mr Akbar’s lack of authority to do anything about it.

“She could see that Dr Akbar was treating her in the same way he had treated other women and knew that he wanted to get rid of her.

“She considered that the allegation of theft and demoting her to do general clerical work and housekeeping, including toilet cleaning, were to degrade and humiliate her and force her to leave the company. The Tribunal accepted her evidence.”