File photo Image: Shutterstock/Syda Productions File photo Image: Shutterstock/Syda Productions A RENTAL COMPANY has been ordered to pay €61,100 to a general manager after she found herself to be effectively demoted to general operative after returning from maternity leave.
The WRC also ordered the employer to pay the woman €100 for a breach of the Terms of Employment Act. I accept her evidence that her role had changed, and her tasks and responsibilities were reduced from her pre-maternity status. The woman resigned from her post in March 2018 and she failed in a separate claim of constructive dismissal against the company.
The worker maintained that the treatment she was subjected to on her return to work was motivated by the fact that she availed of her statutory right to additional maternity leave, and was de facto demoted and forced out of her job. In February 2018, the owner wrote to the complainant’s solicitors to state that he had worked with the employee for 22 years and always had a good working relationship with her.