Unfair sackings you won’t believe happened here

91 per cent of women who were discriminated against while pregnant or returning to work didn't file a formal complaint. Source: Thinkstock. Source: Supplied

JUST over a year ago, Julianne*, a tax accountant, found out she was pregnant. She had been in her profession for nine years and had been with her company for six years when she broke the news to her bosses.

In her six years with the accounting firm in Brisbane, Julianne had been a star performer and was on the leadership track. Her work ethic had been rewarded over the years with a plushy office that overlooked the park, bonuses and great reviews. She told news.com.au: "There was a succession plan where I was going to take over the business."

So she was not prepared for what came next.

When she told her bosses she was pregnant, she was immediately freezed-out by management and most of her colleagues. She said that no one in her office, except for one friend, spoke to her for three weeks. Any instructions she received came through email.

After the initial cold shoulder period, she was moved out of her office into a much smaller one. When her pay review came around, she didn't get the bonus she received every year and wasn't even given a pay rise in line with inflation. She was shown job ads from recruiters to show how replaceable she was.

One in two women experience discrimination when they're pregnant or returning to work from parental leave. Source: News Limited

Her bosses refused to engage with her on a return to work plan. They ruled out, without discussion, a plan to come back part time and wouldn't agree to a solid return date. Every time she brought it up, she was told they didn't "want to talk about it."

If there was any doubt her pregnancy was why she was treated this way, an email she was copied in on (whether intentional or not) dispelled any such questions. The email, seen by news.com.au, was correspondence between the firm's management and a recruiter looking for another accountant. In one of the emails, Julianne's boss specified that he would prefer to see only male candidates because all the women in his office have kids or were about to go on parental leave.

When she went on parental leave, she received a card from her co-workers but only her friend in the office came to see her or inquired after her once she had given birth. Her friend later resigned in protest at how Julianne was treated.

When she returned to work, she was put on the reception desk as her office had been taken over and desk-hopped to other people's desks when they were on leave. She doesn't even have her own workspace. She also found out from a client that she and her pregnancy were being blamed for mistakes that had been made by others when she was on leave.

Everything Julianne had worked for over the years just all came to a halt. The effect her treatment at work has had on her has left Julianne unmotivated to remain in the labour force. "I just want to be at home now," she said. "I think everything I worked for was now a waste of time.

While it was played for comedic effect, 30 Rock character Avery Jessup hid her pregnancy with hams and wizard capes so it wouldn't jeopardise her promotion. Source: Supplied

"I sort of thought this kind of discrimination does happen, but I didn't think it would happen to me because I've always been good at my job and put the company first."

Unfortunately, stories like Julianne's are common.

Last month, the a landmark report from the Human Rights Commission found that one in two Australian women (49 per cent) experienced discrimination in the workplace during pregnancy and when returning to work. Thirty-two per cent of women who were discriminated against said they resigned or went to look for another job. It's devastating indictment on Australia's workplaces and our "fair go" culture.

Julianne and all the women who reached out to news.com.au all requested their names be changed for fear of reprisals or losing other opportunities in their industry. Many of them also mentioned that they didn't want the stigma of being a 'troublemaker' following them throughout their career.

This fear makes it difficult for many women to seek out legal avenues when they experience workplace discrimination. The Human Rights Commission report found a staggering 91 per cent of women who experience discrimination don't follow it up with a formal complaint either with the company or to a government department.

Another disturbing statistic is that one in five women (18 per cent) reported that they were made redundant, restructured, dismissed or had their contracts not renewed during the pregnancy/return to work process.

Katherine Heigl's character in Knocked Up was told she still had to "keep it tight" by her employers. Source: News Limited

Rachael*, from Perth, had recently started at a large beverage bottling company when she found out she was pregnant. Because she was a fairly recent recruit, she said she felt guilty about her pregnancy but she received high scores on her performance plan.

When she went on leave, because she was on a contract, she was given a document that outlined she was going on "extended leave without pay" but that she would be returning to a comparable role. When she was on leave, she attended functions and events on her own time to stay connected to her employers and to the job. But when she was gearing up to return to work, she was told there had been a restructure and the company no longer had a position for her.

"I was quite shocked when I went to speak to them about coming back," Rachael said. "I had no reason to think I wouldn't be returning.

"On my last day before I went on leave, they had a cake and my manager said that while it was unfortunate and an accident that I was pregnant, they were happy for me. It wasn't blatantly talked about but you could see people were a bit negative that I was pregnant and new to the company at the same time."

Penny* works for a major bank in a call centre and is on a contract that is renewed every November. When she fell pregnant in February, she was told her contract wasn't going to be renewed, ostensibly because the company was moving her department overseas. But that argument doesn't quite stack up.

"The bank decided to keep 99 per cent of the workers and moved everyone to a different department except me," she said. "I was never approached or told that they would like me to stay. People who started after me, people who had contracts that weren't supposed to renew was asked to stay on."

On Sex and the City, Miranda was concerned her pregnancy would lead the partners to take her less seriously as a lawyer. Source: AP

Kara* worked for a major supermarket chain in the mid-2000s and was training for a second-in-charge position. She was a service supervisor at the front of the store when she unexpectedly fell pregnant.

"I was almost instantly taken off as supervisor and placed solely on checkouts and no other training for management positions was given to me after I revealed I was pregnant," Kara said.

Despite continual requests to return to management training, even after returning from parental leave, her boss consistently rebuked her. She quit soon after.

But women don't just face difficult while employed. Many mothers have also reported discrimination in the recruitment process.

Justine* said she didn't return to her previous job after her daughter hit the nine-months mark as she had been made redundant. But when she started job-hunting, she found it hard to explain the nine-month gap in her work history without fessing up she just had a baby.

"Even though a lot of people say they accept you have a child, there is still a massive stigma," she said. "Whenever I said I had a baby, the feeling in the room would change and my commitment, my focus and my capability of staying back was questioned. One interviewer even asked 'if your child is sick but you're at work, would you need to leave?'"

Justine said she eventually found a position where the company seemed to be supportive of her family circumstances until she had to take two days off work when her daughter fell sick and her partner was overseas. She said the mood towards her immediately changed.

Barrister Deborah Dinnen, of Maurice Byers Chambers, told news.com.au there are two reasons why women don't pursue the matter — they don't want to burn bridges in the industry they want to keep working in, and because there's a gap in the law in which employers use the redundancy plank.

One in five women were made redundant or had their contracts not renewed while on parental leave. Source: ThinkStock

"Women often aren't sure where to turn," she said. "They have a feeling that they have a right they can enforce but they're not sure of the process or the cost.

"With employers, when they're hit with legal action, if there's a HR department, there's a lot of back peddling and defensive moves. If it's a small business, sometimes they don't know that they can't do what they've done.

"For a small business, it may seem harsh and expensive to them that they must allow a woman to return to her position after 12 months but that's their obligation as an employer."

Worryingly, Ms Dinnen said that while the garden variety pregnancy discrimination has remained stable for a number of years, she has seen, anecdotally, an increase in more extreme more cases of discrimination.

Ms Dinnen said there were a number of cases 10 to 15 years ago that thrust the issue in the spotlight but since then, some employers have become more complacent and may be looking to see how far they can push the boundaries.

The Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, said at the time of the report's release: "It provides indisputable evidence that pregnancy/return to work discrimination continues to be widespread and has a cost — not just to women, working parents and their families — but also to workplaces and the national economy.

Australia Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick said addressing pregnancy discrimination is not only "a human rights imperative but also an organisational priority". Source: News Corp Australia

"The existence of these forms of workplace discrimination is also limiting women's participation in paid work as well as the productivity of businesses and other organisations. Addressing it is not only a human rights imperative but also an organisational priority. It is critical to the growth of both a strong economy and a cohesive society."

Despite significantly outranking their male counterparts as university graduates (57 per cent to 43 per cent), women's workplace participation rate (aged 20 to 74 years old) comes in at 65 per cent, compared to men at 79 per cent.

*Names have been changed.

Have you experienced discrimination in the workplace due to pregnancy? Comments are now closed.

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