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An Australian woman has been made redundant just two days before she was due to go on maternity leave.
Caroline Power was employed by BOC, an energy and welding company, for two years before she fell pregnant.
Her maternity leave had been approved to start on November 6, 2015, but her employment was terminated on November 4.
Caroline was one of eight employees made redundant due to a business structure, however, instead of carrying out the redundancy at the same time as the others, BOC brought the date forward to be implemented before her maternity leave.
Due to this, the court ruled the dismissal unlawful. “The bringing forward of the date of redundancy is adverse action,” Judge Salvatore Vasta , as reported by SMH.
Unfortunately, Caroline is just one of the many Australian women who face losing their job over their choice to raise a family.
Just last year, a Queensland woman claimed her boss told her to have an abortion or risk losing her job, the Courier Mail reports. Weeks before that, another woman was told the same thing only to go through with terminating her pregnancy and to lose her job anyway.
On top of this, a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Supporting Working Parents: Pregnancy and Return to Work National Review found in 2014 that 49 per cent of women experienced discrimination in the workplace during pregnancy, parental leave or when they return to work.
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