Sacked pregnant agent wins £5,000 damages

Wardle Travel loses tribunal fight after unsatisfactory evidence

Sacked pregnant agent wins £5,000 damages

Report by TRAVELWEEKLYSTAFF

Wardle Travel, part-run by ABTAdirector Doug Wardle, has forked out £5,000 in compensation for sacking a trainee consultant who became pregnant.

The Stoke-based travel agency agreed a private settlement after a tribunal ruled it had dismissed employee Sandra Salt because of her sex.

The tribunal heard Salt, 21, found out she was pregnant on February 1 last year, a week after starting at the travel agency in Smallthorne.

Former office manager Lisa Williams told the tribunal that Wardle Travel partner Mark Wardle asked her to keep a diary of everything Salt did or said to customers.

She added that Wardle had asked Salt for a letter confirming her maternity dates.

In a statement, Williams said: “Mr Wardle said to me on a number of occasions that the firm had to be careful how it dismissed Miss Salt, so she could not say they did it because she was pregnant.”

Mark Wardle denied all the allegations made by Williams, who resigned in April last year, saying she had misinterpreted his comments.

The travel agency told the tribunal that Salt was dismissed in April of last year because of her “capability and conduct”, adding she would have been sacked at an earlier time if she had not been pregnant.

In a statement, agency representative Yvonne Whittaker complained that Miss Salt had been late arriving at work on a few occasions and was “over confident”.

In giving its ruling, the tribunal commented that the explanations by the respondents were “unsatisfactory and inadequate”.

Miss Salt, who gave birth to a son Joshua, said: “I am not bothered about the money, I just wanted to prove Wardle Travel was lying.”

Wardle Travel declined to make a comment on the case.