Pregnant officer wins sex discrimination case after being removed from frontline

A judge has ruled a police officer was discriminated against after she told her bosses she was having a baby.

PC Natalie Town took Devon and Cornwall Police to a tribunal after being given a desk role when she revealed she was pregnant on November 21, 2017.

Her superiors took her off front-line duties after carrying out a risk assessment despite receiving advice she was able to continue in her previous role, the Daily Mail reported.

PC Town agreed with several suggestions made, including reducing the amount of night shifts she did so she would not get tired.

But she was not happy with being removed from the beat and felt this would be detrimental to her career, an employment tribunal was told.

She was still behind the desk on February 10 follwoing a three-month absence due to illness.

She did not return to front-line work until May 10.

Devon and Cornwall Police were found to have discriminated against PC Town in relation to her sex and pregnancy.

Employment judge David Harris said: ‘It was understandable to the tribunal that an ambitious front-line PC would be likely to view an enforced transfer to the work of the Crime Management Hub (CMH) as a retrograde step in their career, notwithstanding the obvious importance of the work undertaken in the hub.

‘Her ill-health, in the form of depression and anxiety, and resultant absence from work had been caused by the decision to transfer her to the CMH.

‘The transfer put the claimant to a disadvantage. It removed her from a working environment that she found particularly supportive, against the background of a miscarriage that she had recently suffered, and removed her from work that she valued and enjoyed.

‘Indeed, it was the very work that the claimant had joined the police to be able to do. The transfer, on the tribunal’s findings, also put the claimant at risk of injury to her mental health.’

A further hearing is scheduled to take place to determine the amount of money PC Town will be awarded.