Boss made Pregnant HR Manager Redundant then ‘Mocked’ Her

A pregnant HR manager has received over £21,000 in compensation after her boss made her redundant and then sent her laughing emojis.

A tribunal heard that Mahnaz Rezvani started working as an HR executive at the Glasgow office of Africa Health Research Organisation (AHRO) in February 2023.

After impressing bosses and passing her probation, Dr Abubakar Yaro asked if she wanted to become an “onsite director”.

She refused because she was pregnant.

Dr Yaro had been looking for investors as there was “no money coming in” and as a result, staff had been paid late in June and July 2023.

At the end of August 2023, she notified Dr Yaro via email that she was pregnant and her baby was due in February 2024.

On September 9, Dr Yaro told Ms Rezvani to send out a message that “staff are made redundant for the next six weeks” after he secured new investors and decided to step back from managing the organisation.

After a back-and-forth with him over several days, she emailed Dr Yaro:

“I feel like, based on my performance that you are aware of it has been proven if I did not tell you that I am pregnant, you would not think about making me redundant.”

She had no further contact with Dr Yaro or anyone else from AHRO until September 22.

On that date, he messaged her:

“We need the key to your office for the new management.”

Ms Rezvani replied that she was still an employee and asked to meet with the new management.

Dr Yaro said they were “not going to meet any staff on an individual basis” and refused to pass her number onto them.

She replied: “That’s fine.

“Since you’ve already stepped down, I will wait until the new management officially starts their work and get in touch with me regarding the key.”

In response to her WhatsApp message, Dr Yaro sent seven laughing emojis.

It was at this stage Ms Rezvani “believed her employment was terminated”.

The hearing was told: “Dr Yaro had asked her to return her room key for her private room within the office which gave her to understand she was not expected to return to her place of work.

“The laughing face emojis left her feeling without hope that there would be contact from any other representative of Ahro.”

It was heard that the HR manager was “very upset” about losing her job.

The hearing heard: “The final message of laughing emojis on September 22 caused her to feel particularly distressed.

“She was in disbelief because she felt confident that she was a high performer. She was very tearful about the situation.”

She managed to get a job in HR at Royal Voluntary Service before going on maternity leave in February 2024 and taking AHRO to court.

Ruling in Ms Rezvani’s favour, employment judge Lesley Murphy said she believed she was being made redundant and that her pregnancy had “played a part in that decision”.

The judge said: “He does not refute that she is being made redundant or indeed that [her] pregnancy has been relevant.

“In the days after her email, when [Dr Yaro] makes no attempt to contradict or correct [Ms Rezvani] about her perceived redundancy.

“He engages in WhatsApp correspondence with [her] the following day and does not seek to disabuse her of the understanding that she is to be made redundant.

“When he requests her key on 22 September, it is against a mutual understanding that she is among those affected by his plans to make staff redundant.

“She is expected to renounce her key to the HR room in the office with a clear implication that she is not invited or expected to return to her contractual place of work.

“We consider a reasonable listener would conclude this signifies the end of the relationship as far as [AHRO] is concerned.”

It was concluded that through the laughing emojis, Dr Yaro had “scoffed at her”.

Regarding pregnancy discrimination, the judge said Dr Yaro had a “change of attitude towards” retaining her services after finding out she was pregnant – and two non-pregnant women were kept on.

She said: “We accept that the confusion caused by the opaque manner in which AHRO communicated (through Dr Yaro) the termination of her employment added to the stress she felt during the [September period] and that the callousness of the final laughing emoji message was particularly distressing.”

Ms Rezvani was awarded £21,681 in compensation.