A pharmacist who said she was told to take a demotion or face dismissal within five weeks of disclosing her pregnancy at work has won €50,000 compensation for discrimination.
The Workplace Relations Commission has directed Rose Finlay Pharmacy (Tullamore) Ltd to pay the sum to Dikeledi Nkele Mushapho, who lost her €100,000-a-year job there as supervising pharmacist last year.
Conor McCrave of Setanta Solicitors, for Ms Mushapho, told a hearing earlier this month that his client experienced “a sharp decline” in how she was being treated at work after disclosing her pregnancy on Tuesday 18 February 2025.
The complainant gave evidence that she thought she was””working in a supportive environment” when she made the disclosure.
Since her appointment in November 2024, she said, “the numbers for the business were good and were rising” and there was positive feedback on her performance, she said.
However, on Friday 21 February 2025, a “productivity consultant” appeared at her workplace for the first time, she said.
Mr McCrave submitted that his client was initially told the consultant was there to “support the team”.
On 28 February 2025, Ms Mushapho said her employer was unhappy that she was delayed getting back to work from a pre-natal appointment.
She stayed late to try and “mitigate” the delay, but had missed a deadline for ordering in medication -– a matter which was “used against her as a point of incompetence”, it was submitted.
The following month, Ms Mushapho said her employer told her she was “disappointed in her performance” in what she described as a “quite belittling and intimidating” conversation.
A few days later the consultant was given the job of assessing Ms Mushapho’s personal performance, the tribunal was told.
Ms Mushapho said she told the consultant that she had been doing the duties of “multiple staff” as a floor manager was absent on maternity leave, a support pharmacist had quit, and the locum pharmacist brought in to cover the vacancy was only doing two days a week.
The consultant disagreed with Ms Mushapho’s view and told her: “I am disappointed in you,” the complainant said. She considered this “unusual”, she told the tribunal.
Ms Mushapho told the tribunal that during the course of the consultant’s involvement, she felt she was “being micromanaged in order to get [me] to leave”.
Her employer called her in on 21 March that year and said she was “still not happy” with her progress and told her she should move to a support pharmacist role, Ms Mushapho said.
When she questioned this in writing, she received an email in reply saying she would be dismissed if she did not accept the demotion. She was dismissed on 28 March 2025, the WRC heard.
Adjudication officer Conor Stokes upheld the complaint in a decision published today and awarded the worker €50,000 in compensation for the breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998.
Ms Mushapho was a “credible witness” whose evidence had placed a burden of proof on her former employer to demonstrate “exceptional circumstances” justifying her dismissal while pregnant.
As the employer did not attend the hearing, “no exceptional circumstances were provided”.
“Having considered all the written and oral evidence presented in relation to this matter, my decision is that the complainant was discriminatorily dismissed on the grounds of her pregnancy,” he wrote.
