A mother of two told an employment tribunal that she was dismissed from her position in a flagship store for attending to her sick children. The woman is claiming workplace discrimination against Boots and Elizabeth Arden after she was fired for four child-related absences.
The 30 year-old Didcot resident told the tribunal that a manager had told her to 'come back when your children are older" before having her escorted from the Oracle shopping centre in Reading, where she worked in Boots as a counter manager for an Elizabeth Arden concession. The woman had been recommended for her position and was given store approval, but two Boots managers threatened her with disciplinary action after she received a phone call that her seven month old child was seriously ill. As it was the second time in six weeks that her baby had been unwell, she was told that if she chose to attend to him that her 'store approval" would be rescinded which would inevitably lead to a termination of her contract.
