A MEMBER of the Royal Air Force has been granted permission to proceed with a legal case against the Ministry of Defence, arguing her pregnancy contributed to her being overlooked for a position in Colchester.
The claimant, referred to in tribunal papers simply as ‘Ms Curtis’ had applied for a vacancy at the Military Correction Training Centre in Colchester in 2018, having declined a promotion at RAF Benson, south Oxfordshire.
The case, which was heard before an employment judge earlier this year, was brought after a medical review was cancelled because Ms Curtis was on maternity leave.
Ms Curtis first notified her manager of her pregnancy in May 2017, at which point she was told by one of her seniors she was ranked number 15 on the promotion list for promotion to sergeant.
In August that year, Ms Curtis was then scheduled to have an appointment with the RAF medical board, but it was cancelled three days prior because Ms Curtis – who was not due to start maternity leave until November that year – was pregnant.
By April 2018, Ms Curtis was offered a promotion into a role at RAF Benson and declined it in favour of applying for a position at a Colchester-based Military Correction Training Centre.
According to the tribunal paper, Ms Curtis’s application was unsuccessful because of her medical status, and by November 2018, she was removed from the promotion list altogether.
A complaint, known as a service complaint, was then lodged the following year, with members of the armed forces entitled to make a service complaint if they “think himself or herself wronged in any matter relating to his or her service".
It was after that complaint was thrown out that Ms Curtis appealed the decision and brought the matter before an employment tribunal.
The tribunal, which sent its final decision out to the relevant parties last month, focussed on whether Ms Curtis brought her service complaint forward to the Ministry of Defence within an appropriate timeframe.
Employment judge Ashley Fredericks ruled Ms Curtis had good reason to be confused by the time limits in which she could make a service complaint, ruling she can now pursue her maternity discrimination claim against the Ministry of Defence.
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