Her Boss Refused Her Sick Notes and Said She Was ‘No Longer Needed’ During Severe Pregnancy Sickness — Then a Tribunal Awarded £23,413

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Some workplaces talk a big game about “being a family,” right up until a real family need shows up. A pregnancy gets complicated, the sickness is relentless, and suddenly the employee isn’t a person anymore—she’s a problem to be managed, minimized, or pushed out the door.

That’s what an employment tribunal heard happened to Kiran Nasreen, a receptionist at a London-based immigration solicitors firm, Malik Law Chambers. While she was off sick with Hyperemesis Gravidarum—a severe pregnancy sickness that can leave women bedridden and vomiting—her boss allegedly ignored her calls and messages, refused to accept sick notes, and told her she was “no longer needed.” She later won £23,413 in compensation, as reported in the original post.

It’s an ugly story, but it’s also a practical one. It shows what happens when a manager treats pregnancy like an inconvenience instead of a responsibility, and what it can cost when a business decides basic decency is optional.

A receptionist, a difficult pregnancy, and a boss who shut the door

Nasreen began working for Malik Law Chambers in December 2014 as a receptionist. The tribunal heard that Dr Akbar Ali Malik was her line manager and that they had a good working relationship for years, which matters because it undercuts the idea that this was some long-running performance issue.

In December 2017, she became pregnant and told Dr Malik she was already experiencing sickness. She also flagged the possibility that she might face further difficulties and could need time off. That’s not a threat or a negotiation tactic—it’s what a responsible employee does when she can see trouble coming and tries to give her employer a heads-up.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum isn’t “a bit of nausea”

Hyperemesis Gravidarum has become widely known because Kate Middleton was diagnosed with it during her pregnancies, and she was hospitalized while pregnant with Prince George. The NHS has described it as affecting up to 2% of women in the UK and as one of the more common reasons for hospitalization during pregnancy.

The point isn’t celebrity, and it isn’t trivia. It’s that this condition can be serious and debilitating, and there’s a world of difference between “morning sickness” and the kind of illness that keeps you from functioning normally.

Texts ignored, calls ignored, and sick notes refused

The tribunal heard that after Nasreen went off work on January 20, she texted Dr Malik to say she was very unwell and apologized for not being able to come in. It also heard that he did not answer her texts or her calls, which is the kind of silence that feels like a warning even if no one has said anything out loud yet.

In February, while seven weeks pregnant, she was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. The panel was told her husband went to the office on her behalf with copies of sick notes and medical evidence. That isn’t a dramatic gesture; it’s a family doing the practical work of keeping an employer informed when the employee is too sick to manage it herself.

“No longer needed” and a sudden dismissal

Despite her husband reiterating that the illness was pregnancy-related, the tribunal heard Dr Malik dismissed her. The panel was told he was “hostile” and refused to take the sick notes or medical evidence because she was “no longer needed.” When a boss hears “pregnancy-related sickness” and responds with hostility, you’re not dealing with a misunderstanding—you’re dealing with a choice.

Nasreen tried again, sending her sick note and a hospital letter in hopes he would reconsider. The hearing was told that she received her December payment along with her Christmas bonus, but nothing further, despite having worked until January 20. She later brought claims for pregnancy discrimination, unauthorised deduction from wages, and unfair dismissal—and she succeeded.

What the tribunal said about the firm’s attitude

The panel, headed by employment judge David Massarella, concluded that problems only arose after Nasreen became pregnant and that Malik Law Chambers took “none of the usual steps in relation to a pregnant employee.” That line should stick in your throat a bit, because it suggests this wasn’t a careful process. It was a business deciding it didn’t want the hassle.

Judge Massarella said the tribunal inferred from the evidence that Dr Malik’s attitude changed when he realised she was having a difficult pregnancy, which would involve a “protracted period of sickness absence” and “inevitably” a period of maternity leave. The tribunal concluded this was “inconvenient to the firm” and that he decided to dispense with her services “in a summary fashion.”

Those are not the words of a panel that thinks an employer simply had an administrative slip-up. They read like the assessment of people who believe the decision was driven by impatience and self-interest.

The cost of treating pregnancy like a nuisance

Nasreen was awarded £23,413 in compensation. For a small firm, that’s not pocket change, and it shouldn’t be. Compensation can’t undo the stress of being dismissed while ill and pregnant, but it can at least put weight behind the idea that pregnant employees aren’t disposable.

The tribunal’s finding also exposes a common temptation in management: to treat human limits as a betrayal. A worker gets sick, a pregnancy gets complicated, and a boss starts thinking like a machine—input, output, replace the part. That mindset may feel efficient in the moment, but it tends to rot a workplace from the inside out.

A sober note for employers and families watching this happen

If you’re an employer reading this, the basic responsibilities aren’t mysterious. You listen, you document, you follow proper steps, and you treat medical evidence seriously. If you’re a manager, you don’t get to punish someone for being pregnant, and you don’t get to pretend you can bully sickness out of a body by refusing to acknowledge it.

If you’re a husband or family member watching someone go through severe pregnancy sickness, the tribunal heard that Nasreen’s husband stepped in to communicate and deliver documents. That’s often what support looks like in real life: not big speeches, just doing the admin and the errands when the other person can’t get off the floor. It’s also a reminder that in hard seasons, you may need to advocate calmly but firmly, because not every workplace will do the right thing on its own.

Malik Law Chambers was later shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in 2018, two months after Nasreen was fired, according to the report. Whatever the wider story behind that closure, this case stands on its own as a warning: if you treat people like liabilities, you shouldn’t be surprised when accountability shows up with a number attached.