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A GP practice manager has won more than £300,000 in a discrimination claim against her doctor bosses after they sacked her for falling pregnant and referred to her as 'mother hen'.
Distraught Naomi Hefford stumbled on the partners secretly hatching a plan to axe her and discussing what 'excuse' they could get away with - three days after she told them she was going to have a baby.
An employment tribunal heard the GPs then launched a bogus misconduct investigation into her and fired her by email when she was in hospital shortly before she gave birth to her daughter.
Mrs Hefford successfully sued the doctors for pregnancy discrimination and was awarded £294,000 in compensation earlier this year.
She has now won an extra £20,000 after arguing to the panel that she was entitled to a greater payout to take into account a higher weekly pay and the bonus payment that she would have received had she not been fired.
A hearing in East London was told that the practice manager began work at Queensway Surgery, Southend, Essex, in November 2017 following an interview with partners Dr Michael Jack, Dr Ajith Sivaprasad, Dr Jamil Sorouji, Dr Olanike Aderonmu and Dr Sajid Azeem.
Naomi Hefford, manager at a GPs, sued employers for pregnancy discrimination and won
During the application process Mrs Hefford said she was asked whether she had children or was planning to have them. Although Dr Jack denied this, the tribunal concluded that he had childbearing 'in his mind'.
A year
