Salon boss accused by ex-staff of ‘fat and gay’ jibes

A SALON boss threatened to employ only “fat, gay and lesbian” hair stylists because he was so fed up with his staff having babies, an employment tribunal heard.

Company director Andrew Rodgers, who runs a chain of three salons called Funky Divas in Sheffield, is alleged to have told ex-employee Kirsty Diver, 32, who went into labour early after being involved in a car crash, that she had taken too much time off work with her newborn baby.

She told an employment tribunal: “He later stated that in future he will be employing only fat, gay and lesbian members of staff as no-one would want to have a baby with a fat person and gays and lesbians would not need to be off for maternity or paternity leave.”

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Miss Diver was one of several ex Diva stylists to speak in support of former City Road salon manager Natasha Bramhall, 26, who is claiming sex discrimination and unfair dismissal against Mr Rodgers’s business.

Emmi Barton, a 19-year-old stylist claimed her former boss had said: “If I could get away with not employing women then I wouldn’t”. One pregnant stylist claimed she had a baby in the toilets at work while she was doing a client’s nails as she did not dare not tell Mr Rodgers, 34, she was pregnant.

Miss Bramhall resigned after claiming her boss’s behaviour towards her changed dramatically after she told him she was pregnant on Christmas Eve 2009. She said she was left to work alone in a salon in a run-down area and was not paid when she took time off for ante-natal appointments and scans.

Miss Bramhall, of Darnall, Sheffield, returned to work in March 2011 but says she was effectively demoted before quitting six months later.

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Mr Rodgers, of Ecclesfield, Sheffield, denies all the claims and says Miss Bramhall did not make any complaints about pregnancy-related conditions while he employed her. He believed she was aggrieved because he had tried to take action to stop her and another former Divas employee from setting up a salon in competition with his.

“I employ more women than men and over the years a number of employees have become pregnant, taken maternity leave and returned from maternity leave without any problems,” he said.

Stylist Louise Abakanowicz backed her boss, saying: “I certainly do not feel he has treated me differently or badly for having a baby and taking maternity leave.”

The hearing was adjourned.

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