A new mother without a single day of legal training has won a 60,000 pay out from Morrisons after they changed her role and forced her to work full-time following maternity leave.
Donna Patterson, 38, said she was “gaslighted” into taking on the extra hours and later launched legal action after suffering work-related stress.
The ex-buyer spent five days cross-examining eight former colleagues, using meeting minutes to show how managers had “questioned” her priorities after she fell pregnant.
A judge eventually ruled that she should receive 60,442.25 in compensation after hearing that the grocery giant had planned to demote her after she said she was having a baby.
Ms Patterson said after the “gruelling” case at Leeds Employment Tribunal Court, where she faced off against legal professionals before winning a unanimous verdict, tears of relief streamed down her face.
The mother-of-two said: “I just sat there and tears streamed down my face. Just from the sheer relief that it was worth it – worth all of the stress, all of the effort and worth everybody saying ‘why not just walk away and move on’.”
She added: “It was a complete relief. I was conscious that what had happened was morally wrong but might not have broken the right legal criteria.
“Fortunately I had a really great judge and panel and because of the work I had put in it was quite clear that employment law had been broken.”
Ms Patterson, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, first worked at Morrisons in 2008 before leaving and...
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