A legal secretary who claims she was constructively dismissed because her managers would not let her work flexible hours to care for her disabled son won the first round of her appeal to the European Court of Justice this week.
Sharon Coleman was working for Attridge Law when she gave birth to her son in 2002. He suffers from apnoeic attacks which cause him to stop breathing for short periods.
Coleman says her employers accused her of being “lazy” when she asked for flexible working conditions. She took voluntary redundancy in 2005.
An advocate general at the European Court of Justice ruled that her employers were guilty of “discrimination by association”.
Poiares Maduro said EU law guaranteeing equal treatment at work for disabled people extended to those connected with them.
A full panel of European Court judges will rule on the case later this year, but in 80% of cases they back the initial ruling made by the advocate general.
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Glass ceiling remains
The number of women in British boardrooms is falling, according to a report by the Observer.
The survey, by consultancy firm Gavurin of companies of all sizes in the UK, shows that 54 per cent of new companies registered in 2007 have no female directors at all. The number of directors in all companies who were female had fallen from 43 per cent in 1991 to 35 per cent last year. The poll also shows that women starting up their own businesses have more success in some parts of the UK than in others. In the Northeast 28 per cent of companies had a mainly female board, compared to 22 per cent in London. Many companies led by women directors were in traditionally female sectors such as hairdressing.
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Tories call for dedicated maternity nurses
The Conservatives are to offer all new mothers a dedicated maternity nurse for up to six hours a day for the first week after birth.
The maternity nurses would help mothers to establish breastfeeding, ensure healthy meals were provided, look after older children, keep the house clean, ensure the mother had enough rest and keep a diary of the mother’s and baby’s progress.
The Conservatives are also proposing schemes such as more park rangers to reclaim public spaces for children and make them safe.
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Thirty-something mothers ‘would turn backs on full-time work’
Only one per cent of thirty-something women rate work as their top priority, acccording to a survey.
And only five per cent would choose to work full-time after having a baby, the poll for career woman magazine RED showed.
Thirty-six per cent would like to be full-time mothers and 59 per cent would work part-time if they could afford to.
The survey also showed that Nigella Lawson was the role model favoured by readers for combining work, life and home.
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‘Working mums need healthy quick meals’
The food industry should do more to produce low salt quick meals to help working mums, a leading nutritionist has said.
Graham MacGreggor, chairman of Consensus Action on Salt and Health and professor of cardiovascular medicine at St George's Hospital, said that while it was preferable for parents to prepare fresh food for their children, this was not always possible with two parents working.
He said: "[A working mum] needs to be able to buy a product, put it in the microwave and have a meal for the kids in ten minutes. What she needs is the food industry to help her by producing really good products that are tasty, with far less salt and fat, and with more vegetables in. This can be done quite easily, and not at an increased cost either."
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