Opposing parties await Court’s opinion on pregnancy dismissal case

Date: 29/01/1998

By Leyla Linton

AN ADVOCATE-general in the European Court of Justice will next week give a preliminary opinion on the legality of dismissing a woman whose pregnancy made her ill.

The case centres on the distinction between a dismissal on grounds of pregnancy alone, which would qualify as sex discrimination under Community law, and a dismissal on grounds of sickness arising out of pregnancy.

British driver Mary Brown was sacked by her employer Rentokil, which provides hygiene and pest-control services, shortly before she gave birth because she had been off work for more than 26 weeks with sick notes saying she was suffering from "symptoms of pregnancy" or "pregnant backache".

Brown's appeal reached the highest court in the UK, the House of Lords, which has asked the European Court for guidance on interpreting EU law.

Brown is claiming she is a victim of sex discrimination because she was dismissed for being ill as a result of her pregnancy. But Rentokil argues that she was not dismissed because she was pregnant, but because her pregnancy was "unusual or abnormal". It points out that her prolonged absence from work fell outside the standard maternity leave period.

The firm has told the Court that the situation of a woman who suffers from pregnancy-related illness before the start of her maternity leave is comparable with a man who has been absent through illness for a similar period.

The UK government agrees with Rentokil that Brown's dismissal would be lawful if a man who was absent for the same length of time was treated no more favourably.

But Brown's lawyers point out that men do not get pregnant and argue that it is "irrelevant" that her dismissal was based on a rule on absences which theoretically applies to both men and women.

The European Commission is supporting Brown's argument, declaring that no distinction should be made between pregnancy and pregnancy-related illnesses, and that it is discriminatory to apply the same rules on absences to men and women regardless of pregnancy.