Mishandling Keeping in Touch days rarely causes a claim alone, but it can tip a wider pattern into unlawful discrimination.
“Mishandling something as apparently minor as Keeping in Touch days can form part of a successful wider discrimination and constructive dismissalWhen your employer's behaviour is so serious that you feel you have no choice but to resign, the law may treat that resignation as a dismissal. The most common basis is a fundamental breach of the imp... claim.”
Keeping in Touch days rarely cause a claim on their own, but mishandling them alongside other issues can tip a wider pattern of treatment into unlawful discrimination.
- If your employer repeatedly fails to organise, pay, or communicate properly about your Keeping in Touch days, keep a record, it can support a wider claim even where it wouldn't succeed as an issue on its own.
- Tribunals look at the whole pattern of how you were treated during pregnancy and maternity leave, not just one isolated incident.
- If poor treatment during maternity leave leaves you feeling you have no real choice but to resign, that can amount to constructive and automatically unfair dismissal, not just a pay or benefits problem.
The situation
Mrs Davies said her employer failed to carry out a proper pregnancy risk assessment, refused a flexible working requestA formal ask to change your hours, working pattern, or location, which every employee can make from day one of a job. An employer can only refuse it for one of eight specific business reasons set out ..., and repeatedly failed to organise and communicate properly about her Keeping in Touch days during her maternity leave. She resigned and brought several claims connected to this pattern of treatment.
What the tribunal found
The tribunal upheld her claims of indirect sex discrimination, pregnancy and maternity discrimination under section 18 of the Equality Act 2010The main piece of legislation protecting employees from discrimination at work. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, sex, race, and religion, and makes it unlawful for a..., and unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi.... The mishandling of Keeping in Touch days was treated as one part of a wider pattern of unfavourable treatment connected to her pregnancy and maternity leave, alongside the risk-assessment failure and the flexible working refusal, rather than as a standalone issue.
Mrs L Davies v Active 8 Managed Technologies Ltd. Case No. 2600001/2023. Employment Tribunal (Nottingham). 2024.