An expectant mother who was fired after having gone to renew her car insurance while she was on sick leave has been awarded €8,000 after an industrial tribunal found the dismissal was not justified. 

The tribunal, chaired by Edmund Tabone, heard how Ashleigh Pandurov had been employed as a secretary with S&M (Marketing) Company Limited since January 2018 on an indefinite contract.

In February 2019, when she was six months pregnant, Pandurov was taken ill and her family doctor issued a medical certificate for three days.

Pandurov’s husband presented the three-day sickness certificate to the director of the company, Mark Bezzina.

While on sick leave, the woman had to go to her doctor’s clinic in Qormi as she was suffering from nausea. Directly opposite the doctor’s clinic was an office used by her car insurer, so the woman had crossed the road and settled her insurance while she was out of the house.

Her employer was informed that she was seen outdoors though she was meant to be on sick leave and, upon her return to work, Bezzina told her that she was fired.

Pandurov had been “dismissed due to disciplinary reasons” recorded on her JobsPlus termination form, which she denied ever signing and which had, in fact, only been marked with her initials.

Dismissal from employment is the most serious punishment and, therefore, this must be justified

Her lawyer, David Gatt, insisted with the tribunal that his client had been dismissed solely because she was pregnant and that this was a clear breach of her rights.

The company’s lawyer, Pio Valletta, denied this claim and argued instead that the former employee had breached her statutory and contractual obligations by choosing to run an errand while she was on sick leave.

This was tantamount to gross misconduct, which the company took very seriously. It was only by coincidence that Bezzina had learned that the woman had gone out to renew her car insurance while on sick leave.

The industrial tribunal ruled that, although it could not condone running an errand while on sick leave, it could also never justify the company’s decision to take the extreme decision to dismiss the employee without first starting disciplinary proceedings where the employee was given the opportunity to defend herself from the charge.

“Dismissal from employment is the most serious punishment and, therefore, this must be justified by the procedure adopted and the related gravity” [of the offence], the tribunal said.

It also noted serious shortcomings by the company regarding “dubious administration” with regard to the registration of the woman’s employment with JobsPlus.

Ruling that there was a lack of good and sufficient reasons to terminate Pandurov’s employment, the tribunal ordered the company to pay her €8,000 in compensation within one month.