'Go puke in a bag'

Victor

Pregnant shop worker wins €38,000 after boss told her 'go puke in a bag'

From: The Irish Independent
Friday, 22nd November, 2002

A SHOP manager, who refused a pregnant member of staff permission to go to the toilet, threw a plastic bag at her and said "get sick in that," a judge heard yesterday.

"I had to puke into the plastic bag in front of customers," Michelle Webster, a 20-year-old mother-to-be at the time, told Judge Elizabeth Dunne in Dublin Circuit Civil Court.

Ms Webster, now almost 23, said she had been suffering from morning sickness and, because the Pound City shop toilet was used for storing stock, staff had to ask permission to use a public toilet.

She told her counsel, Donagh MacDonagh SC, that after informing Pound City manager Mark Fitzpatrick she was pregnant he "made life hell" for her.

The hassle and intimidation reached such a level she had to receive medical attention for stress and her doctor had eventually put it to her she had a grave decision to make.

It was either her job or her baby so she had decided to quit her job in Pound City, Crumlin Shopping Centre, Dublin, in May 2000.

Ms Webster, of Alderwood Green, Springfield, Tallaght, sued Kesvale Ltd, which trades at 40 Pound City shops countrywide.

After having given her evidence and following lunchtime negotiations, she settled her €38,000 claim for damages for constructive dismissal for an undisclosed sum.

Frank Callanan, SC, who appeared with James Phillips, for Kesvale Ltd, told Judge Dunne the settlement had been reached without admission of liability on the part of the company.

Ms Webster said she had been assistant manager in Pound City, Crumlin, and had worked happily with Mr Fitzpatrick until she told him she was pregnant.

When told by Mr Fitzpatrick it "would not work out", she informed him he would have to sack her as she would not resign just because of her pregnancy.

She had agreed to give up her job as assistant shop manager and reverted to ordinary floor staff.

One morning when she was feeling sick she had asked Fitzpatrick if she could go to the toilet down the shopping mall and he said no.

"I told him I had to go as I was going to get sick.

"He threw a Pound City bag at me and said 'get sick in that, you are not leaving the shop'," she said.

She told the court that she had to vomit into the plastic bag in front of customers.

After that there were several more incidents which had caused hassle and distress for her, she claimed.

She had to use a broken ladder to stack shelves and her boss would not allow any other member of staff to help her.

She attended her doctor because of morning sickness and stress and eventually decided to quit for her own and her baby's sake.

Kesvale Ltd, had entered a full defence to Ms Webster's claim and denied any of its staff had engaged in humiliating or intimidating behaviour towards her.

Gordon

It's very hard to imagine that that is true in this day and age.
It must have been a pretty open and shut case, fair play to her.
In fact, how on earth there were "several more incidents" after that is mind boggling.