A mother-of-two has won a maternity discrimination claim against one of Britain’s most famous baby brands.
Technical manager Nichola Osborn was ‘completely blindsided’ when she was told she was at risk of redundancy just a month after returning to work at Mothercare, a hearing was told.
An employment tribunal ruled that Mothercare bosses conspired to ‘dispose’ of Ms Osborn while she was on leave after giving birth to her second child.
She is now in line for compensation after successfully suing for discrimination and unfair dismissal, with a judge ruling her redundancy as a ‘sham’.
The tribunal, held in Watford, heard that Mrs Osborn began working for the then high street store as a technical manager in April 2016.
She first took a year’s maternity leave in 2017 and then became pregnant again in mid-2019 when she agreed to another year of maternity leave from May 2020 to May 2021.
Her husband Andrew, a consultant, was brought in as cover for her for the first six months of her leave, the hearing was told.
The tribunal heard that in the last weeks of his contract, Mothercare hired a different consultant – Chris Beeley – who had previously worked with the company’s Chief Product Officer, Karen Tyler, at rival children’s retailer Mammas & Pappas.
Manager Nichola Oborn was ‘completely blindsided’ when she was told she was at risk of redundancy just a month after returning to work at Mothercare, a hearing was told
Mr Osborn’s contract was not renewed and the new consultant took over his wife’s role while she was still on maternity leave.
The hearing was told that following Mothercare UK going into administration in November 2019 the whole technical team, which she was part of, was being restructured.
Mrs Osborn took some additional maternity leave and she returned to work in June 2021, the tribunal heard.
In July bosses met over WhatsApp to discuss the restructure and, in particular, removing Mrs Osborn’s role as technical and corporate social responsibility manager.
The next day Ms Tyler met with Mrs Osborn to tell her she could be made redundant, news she found it ‘very upsetting’.
She was told she could apply for a more senior role, which was actually the same as her current job, but was not offered an alternative position.
In November Mrs Osborn refused a final consultation meeting about her future saying there was ‘no way’ she could continue and claiming that her termination was ‘unfair and discriminatory’.
A few days later, on December 3, the manager was told that her job was redundant and that she was being dismissed.
After Mrs Osborn’s redundancy the Head of Technical position was advertised and in February 2022 Mr Beeley was appointed to the role.
Mothercare had more 150 stores in 2017, but in November 2019, it was plunged into administration, leading to the closure of all stores
The tribunal found that the redundancy process was a ‘sham’ and that Ms Tyler had decided as early as December 2020, when Mrs Osborn was on maternity leave, that she wanted to replace her with Mr Beeley.
EJ Alliott said: ‘We find that, at a time when [Mrs Osborn] was on maternity leave, probably in November/December 2020, Karen Tyler decided she wanted to replace [her] with Chris Beeley.
‘We find that [Mothercare] had decided to dispense with [Mrs Osborn] and was waiting for her maternity leave to come to an end before doing so.
‘We find that the speed with which [she] was told her position was redundant after returning from maternity leave (and holiday) supports this.
‘We find that the decision to make changes to [Mrs Osborn’s] role under the pretext of a general departmental restructure was unfavourable treatment and was to implement the decision to replace [her] with Chris Beeley.
‘We find that the treatment was whilst she was exercising the right to additional maternity leave. We have found the alleged redundancy situation was a sham.’
Mothercare had more 150 stores in 2017, but in November 2019, it was plunged into administration, leading to the closure of all stores.
It continues to sell products for expectant mothers in Boots, both on the High Street and online.
