Mother Wins Over $250K in Settlement After Employer Denies Reduced Hours for Daycare Pickup

A mother in the UK took home a $250,000 settlement after she says her employer denied giving her reduced hours to pick up her child from a daycare.

Alice Thompson won £185,000, roughly $255,947, on Aug. 12 after she asked real estate agency Manors if she could finish her 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift an hour earlier to pick up her daughter, as well as requesting a four-day work week. Her employer, as she told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, never “seriously considered” her request or countered with an offer.

“If they needed me for the full hours, maybe eight ‘til five instead of nine ‘til six, that’s something I could have worked around,” she told BBC Radio 4. “But it was shut down, every avenue, not listened to, not considered. And I was left with no other option but to resign.”

After resigning, she pursued legal action, as UK employees of 26 weeks can make flexible working requests and have to hear back in at least three months, in which case employers can refuse or negotiate if it negatively impacts the company. In Thompson’s case, the employment tribunal reads that she “felt that this was an injustice because of her sex, which it was.” After her indirect discrimination claim was accepted, despite her direct claim being denied, her payout reportedly stems from “injury to feelings.”

“Our conclusion is that the respondent has not shown that refusal of the proposed reduction in hours of work was proportionate to the real need of the business to maintain successful relations with.”