Ep 90 - Making Legal History with Social Worker, Maria Rooney

My guest on the podcast today is Social Worker and Activist Maria Rooney.

Maria worked for Leicester City Council for 12 years before taking them to Tribunal for menopause discrimination including constructive unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and disability discrimination.

It's been a long and stressful journey, but Maria has already won her appeals at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (high court in London) with her 14 day employment tribunal final hearing in October 2023.

She has made legal history as her case was the first menopause case/appeal in the Employment Appeal Tribunal relating to sex & disability discrimination.

Maria shares her story, (although there are some areas she cannot discuss as this is an ongoing legal case) describing how let down, unsupported and invalidated she felt by her managers, her doctors and the tribunal judges among others.

The number of tribunals where menopause has been cited as the reason for discrimination is on the rise, and many employers are failing to put in place the systems, processes and training needed to properly, and legally, support those employees struggling with menopause related symptoms.

Menopause can cause some people to experience severe physical, mental and cognitive changes, often leading to difficulties in carrying out their usual day to day activities and often lasting for a number of years - which, by the definition used within the Equality Act 2010 in the UK, may well constitute a disability.

Maria has been representing herself as a Litigant in Person for the past three years but she now has a new legal team who have kindly offered to take on her case. She has to raise funds to help pay for her legal fees so she can bring this ground breaking and highly significant case to the Employment Tribunal again at her 14 day Final Hearing in October 2023.   She's crowdfunding to help meet the £50k bill likely to be incurred to bring this ground breaking and highly significant case to the High Court. 

If you would like to support Maria in her fund raising efforts you can donate at CrowdJustice .  You can also follow Maria's journey via her LinkedIn profile or join her Facebook Group Going Through the Menopause or Just Going Mad

And if you're an employer looking to avoid the risk of being taken to Tribunal, one of the best things you can do is to train your people to understand what menopause is and how they can support their teams and colleagues.  And that's where we can absolutely help.  At Floresco Training we've been working with businesses both large and small, across all sectors for nearly 5 years providing training and consultancy services.  Find out more about what we offer at FlorescoTraining.co.uk where we will happily sit down with you to help find the best training solution for you.

Finally, if you're a woman over 40 looking for support around menopause and navigating this weird period known as 'mid life' then do come and join my amazing Facebook community Your Best Midlife