Woman wins nine-year battle over maternity income (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

(Sorry ladies, it happened in England. Pass the E.R.A. NOW!)

Woman wins nine-year battle over maternity income

Salary rise must be included in pay calculation, court rules

Lucy Ward, social affairs correspondent
Wednesday May 4, 2005
The Guardian

A mother who fought a nine-year court battle for higher maternity pay won victory yesterday in a landmark case that is expected to affect thousands of women. Michelle Alabaster won just £204.53 plus £65.86 interest in maternity backpay from her former employer after almost 10 years, during which her case moved from an employment tribunal to an appeal tribunal, then on to the European court of justice and an appeal court in London.

Yesterday she said she had persisted with the battle so as to correct the underpayment "on principle", to ensure that women on maternity leave got their rightful pay. "Pregnancy is a really expensive time for new mums and it is hard making ends meet. I am proud that I have fought for what is right," she said. "Thousands of women will benefit from what I have done."

Mrs Alabaster, 36, from Bexleyheath, Kent, started her case against the Woolwich building society, which is now owned by Barclays bank, in 1996 while pregnant with her daughter Ellie. She claimed that her employer at the time broke the sex discrimination laws of Europe by underpaying her during her maternity leave...

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...The judgment means that all new mothers will now have any pay rise awarded up to the end of their maternity leave taken into account when their maternity pay is calculated. The case also closes a legal loophole in the Equal Pay Act that has effectively prevented women on maternity leave from bringing equal pay claims because of having to find a male worker with whom to compare pay...

(more at link above)