Secretary claims she was sacked for getting pregnant

A secretary filed a judicial protest against her former employer claiming she was fired just six months after starting work because she was pregnant.

Towards the end of March, Christine Bonnici discovered she was pregnant and was approached by John Psaila, a director at BDO Attard Buttigieg Psaila and Co., who asked what she planned to do after she had the baby, she claimed. He told her that her situation had caused a serious problem for the company.

About half-an-hour later she had to go back to his office to sign some papers in the presence of another director, John Attard, who also asked to see her a little later. Mr Attard apologised for his colleague's words and praised her for the excellent work she had carried out so far but then asked what would she do once the baby was born. He described her pregnancy as a hurdle that had to be overcome and insinuated that she had known she was pregnant well before she broke the news to them, something which was impossible, Ms Bonnici said.

She felt hurt by such comment and, once again, he apologised for his actions.

Ms Bonnici then informed him that she had visited the relevant government website and checked about her rights, including that she was entitled to 13 weeks paid maternity leave and one week unpaid. That meant she would not report for work between mid-November and mid-February. She told Mr Attard she would discuss with her family whether she should continue working after giving birth and came to the conclusion that she should.

Ms Bonnici said she informed the director that she was going to continue working and he told her they could not do without her for 13 weeks and that the matter had now become an insurmountable problem.

On July 29, Mr Attard and Mr Psaila informed her that they were going to terminate her employment, insisting they were legally correct in doing so and did not have to give her a reason for this. They even told her she could take legal advice about it, she said.

Ms Bonnici said that in this day and age when there was such a fight against discrimination she was shocked that something like this had happened to her.

She is holding the company responsible for all possible damages.