Employers should ensure they agree in advance how and how often they will communicate with an employee while on maternity leave (or indeed other periods of longer family-related leave), particularly if the employee will be at risk of redundancy during that period. In South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust v Jackson, the EAT ruled that sending an email about redeployment opportunities to the employee's work email address which she was unable to access, meaning she only became aware several days later, was unfavourable treatment on grounds of maternity leave for which she was awarded £5,000 compensation. It might also be discrimination on grounds of maternity, but that would depend on the reason for using the work email address and would not be so if the reason was simply administrative error.
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