A woman who claims she was unfairly dismissed from her job in 2016 because she was pregnant won an appeal against an Employment Relations Tribunal’s 2018 decision that her termination was fair.
The decision was made by the Employment Relations Court in Suva on Thursday, December 23.
Artika Devi was employed as an accountant by Pacific Pipelines and Geosynthetic Ltd in 2005 and in July 2016, after 11 years of service, applied to take maternity leave in September that year.
However, her employer claimed she was terminated nearly three weeks before her application for non-performance in her role as the team leader of the accounts division, although the court found no indication of this was made known to the appellant and she worked until mid-August before she was forced to take maternity leave because of complications.
Ms Devi eventually came to know of her termination during a phone call on November 14, 2016, where her employer told her husband that she need not return to work.
She filed proceedings in the Employment Relations Tribunal which found in favour of the defendant.
Justice Javed Mansoor overturned the tribunal’s decision that her termination was fair and held that Ms Devi was not given notice, which breached the contract of employment, and her termination was contrary to law.
Justice Mansoor allowed her appeal and ordered that she be paid all unpaid remuneration from September 1 to January 14, 2016, unpaid remuneration for August 2016, unused annual leave, compensation equivalent to six months of remuneration and $1500 in costs.
Ms Devi was represented by Damodaran Nair.
