For the first time ever, a Belgian Labour Court has convicted an employer of workplace gender discrimination for having sacked a woman on the grounds that she had had an abortion. The conviction has been heralded as an important judicial precedent by the Institute for the Equality of Men and Women.
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A first in Belgium: company convicted for sacking woman that had an abortion
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The Labour Court ordered the employer to pay the employee six months' gross wages. The Institute for the Equality of Men and Women was awarded a symbolic 1-euro damages payment. The employer has said that they accept the ruling and will not be lodging an appeal.
In a reaction the Adjunct-Director of the Institute for the Equality of Men and Women Liesbet Stevens told journalists that “This sets a very important precedent because this is the first judgment explicitly confirming that dismissal because of an abortion is discrimination on the basis of gender”.
Ms Stevens added that "It is a clear message from the court that women should not be dismissed due to getting pregnant without wanting to and deciding to terminate a pregnancy early”.
"Weaker performance and breached trust"
The woman went to the Institute for the Equality of Men and Women in 2021 as she believed that she had been the victim of unfair dismissal. The woman was fired on the second day of her return to work after the abortion. The employer terminated her contract on the grounds of "weaker performance and breached trust."
In their defence the employer cited the results of a performance review a few days before the termination and several managers testified in court that the woman had not been performing well.
The court however believed that the timing of the woman’s dismissal and the lack of any serious attempts to reassess the woman’s performance as indicating a link between the abortion and the decision to terminate her contract. The woman’s former employer did not provide any objective evidence for the reasons it cited as the motivation for its decision to dismiss the woman.