Woman loses EU case over pregnancy sick pay

AN Irish mother-to-be suffering from a pregnancy-related illness was not entitled to be treated differently to anybody else, the European Court of Justice has ruled.

As a result, pregnant women could find their pay reduced to half if they are out of work for six months, even if their illness is due to their condition.

The judgement is leading the Equality Tribunal to rethink the way it considers such cases and interprets Irish equality and maternity legislation in the future.

The landmark case was taken by Margaret McKenna, who worked with the North Western Health Board when she became pregnant in 2000.

Her trade union Impact expressed disappointment with yesterday’s decision.

The Equality Tribunal in 2001 found the Health Board discriminated against Ms McKenna when they halved her pay after she was out of work for six months.

They said that because her illness was due to her pregnancy it should not be subject to the same rules as other ailments.

The Health Board appealed the decision to the Labour Court, who referred it to the European Court of Justice where they were supported by the Irish and British governments. The Italian and Austrian governments supported Ms McKenna’s case.

Under the terms of the board’s sick-leave scheme, staff are entitled to paid sick leave for up to 365 days in any four-year period. A maximum of 183 days or six months absence in any one year is paid at full pay, and any additional time off in the year is paid at half rate.

The scheme for public servants does not distinguish between pregnancy-related illness and any other form of illness.

Ms McKenna was ill for almost the entire nine months of her pregnancy and was certified as unfit for work by her doctor.

She had exhausted her entitlement to full pay on July 6, 2000, and was on half pay from then until September 3 when she started her maternity leave. She was put back on full salary and this was reduced to half pay again when she was off work sick for another period of time.

Ms McKenna challenged this, claiming it amounted to discrimination on grounds of gender because only women suffer pregnancy-related illness.

However, the court of three judges cited past cases which found a woman may be dismissed due to an illness related to pregnancy or childbirth and can have their pay reduced during maternity leave.

An Equality Tribunal spokesperson said: “We are looking carefully at this judgement and are getting legal opinion on the need to rethink the way we interpret the legislation in the future.” MEP for the North-West region, Marion Harkin, called for the Government to consider the issues and come up with a new proposal under the equality and maternity legislation.

Eimear O’Shea of Impact said she believed there were some positive arguments in the judgement that they could use when the case returned to the Labour Court later this year.