A pregnant woman, fired by One Call Insurance after spending a generous amount of time viewing non-work-related material during work hours, has lost her unfair dismissal claim at an employment tribunal.
The pregnant woman, Paige Mowatt, spent over 10 and a half hours researching baby-related products online and conducting a “sustained and calculated” search of her colleagues’ private messages during work hours for over 15 days.
“It was found that Miss Mowatt had accessed websites relating to the sale of prams and other children’s items during working hours,” the tribunal said, as reported by The Yorkshire Post.
One Call Insurance fired her for her behaviour, but she later sued the company for victimisation and unfair dismissal.
During a disciplinary investigation, Mowatt admitted to looking at websites and using her WhatsApp account for personal reasons during working hours, claiming that she was unsure of the time she looked at the various websites, but “they could have been during her breaks.”
She also admitted to checking out the emails of her colleagues, including managers, and adding inboxes to her Outlook account – with many of those she viewed unrelated to her and including other members’ return-to-work after sickness documents.
The investigation found that Mowatt did not search for herself in the emails by name. Instead, she conducted general browsing, where “she did not appear to be looking for anything specific.”
“Miss Mowatt’s viewing of colleagues’ emails was calculated, sustained, and extremely wide-ranging involving her not simply in searching for references to herself but viewing correspondence which had nothing whatsoever to do with her and which in some cases was of a private nature,” said Employment Judge Neil Maidment, as reported by The Yorkshire Post.
When asked why she did such a thing, Mowatt explained that she “had started this from just before she stepped down as manager as she felt she was being left out of things such as emails and WhatsApp groups.”
Therefore, Maidment ruled that One Call Insurance’s decision to sack the pregnant woman was reasonable, considering that “there was such a loss of faith and trust in Miss Mowatt that it could no longer sustain her employment.”
