A video editor has won £70,000 in a pregnancy discrimination case after she was sacked for trying to work from home due to ‘severe’ morning sickness.

Kaila Farmer angered her boss at a video production company after she announced she was pregnant and presented a doctor’s note saying her nausea and vomiting meant she could not work from the office, a tribunal heard.

The company manager, Harry Pill, had previously made comments to staff that maternity pay was ‘unfair’ and secretly plotted to get rid of Mrs Farmer, it was heard.

After congratulating the editor on her news, he devised bogus allegations that her performance was not good enough.

Mrs Farmer has now successfully sued his company Fresh Cut Video for £73,500 for unfair dismissal and pregnancy discrimination.

The tribunal ruled Mr Pill was ‘clearly unhappy’ she could not work in their Oxford office and had to work from home.

Mrs Farmer told the Daily Mail she was hit with a performance review seven working days after informing Mr Pill of her pregnancy, despite previously enjoying ‘positive’ feedback from him about her of work and there being ‘no indication of performance issues’.

‘It’s been a rollercoaster,’ she said. ‘I’m ready to put this behind me now.’

Mrs Farmer joined Fresh Cut Video in January 2023 as a video editor and operations manager.

She initially worked remotely for the Oxford-based company because she was living in South Africa, but she moved to Reading, Berks, in October 2023 to live with her husband, who had been in the UK since 2020.

They planned to start a family, it was heard.

After relocating to the UK, Mrs Farmer was expected to work in Fresh Cut Video’s office in Oxford.

Her time at the company started well, as she received bonuses for her work and was told by Mr Pill at a probation meeting: ‘You are doing great.’

But between January 8 and 16, 2024, Mrs Farmer had to work from home because she was sick.

The tribunal heard she was due to be in the office to take part in an important call on the afternoon of January 16, but told Mr Pill in the morning she would be unable to make it.

When she suggested she could still join the meeting remotely, Mr Pill said: ‘Hi Kaila, no problem… don’t worry about the meeting.’

Kaila Farmer has won £70,000 in a pregnancy discrimination case after she was sacked for trying to work from home due to ‘severe’ morning sickness

Mrs Farmer angered her boss after she announced she was pregnant and presented a doctor’s note saying her nausea and vomiting meant she could not work from the office

Mrs Farmer enjoying a night out before she was compelled to lodge a case at tribunal 

That day, Mr Pill complained to his mother – who managed HR for the company – saying in a text: ‘Time to check about that probation… not noticing/caring an emergency like that call and telling me about it today at 7:20am instead of last night – doesn’t care about me at all.’

The next day, Mrs Farmer told Mr Pill that she was ‘excited’ to tell him that she was pregnant but that her doctor had advised her to work from home.

Mr Pill ‘appeared to receive the news positively’ and said it was ‘fine’ to work from home.

But that evening, Mr Pill’s mother sent the company’s HR and employment law firm Peninsula an email which read: ‘We have consistently made it very clear to KF that the post is office-based with some work on location but managing the commute has been an ongoing challenge for KF.

‘In the meeting today, KF advised Harry that she is pregnant and has some additional health challenges that will necessitate her working from home for the time being.’

A week later on January 23 Fresh Cut Video formally instructed Peninsula to advise them for an upcoming performance review of Mrs Farmer.

It was on that same day Mrs Farmer downloaded work files onto her personal computer which was ‘usual’ and which Mr Pill had known about – but on this occasion he claimed it was a ‘data breach’ and ‘stealing data’.

On February 19, pregnant Mrs Farmer was dismissed for poor performance and alleged misconduct by way of a termination letter.

Married Mrs Farmer, 36, sued the company at Reading Employment Tribunal, where Employment Judge Christabel McCooey found that her claims of unfair dismissal and discrimination based on her pregnancy succeeded.

The judge said, citing the messages to the employment law firm: ‘Pregnancy is explicitly mentioned in the context of the main concern, which is the post being office-based and of [Mrs Farmer] taking sick leave.

‘I therefore infer that the concerns about the role being office-based were significantly influenced and exacerbated by the disclosure of the pregnancy and [her] current sick leave related to that pregnancy, which was set to last for at least six weeks.’

Judge McCooey added: ‘I find Mr Pill tended to downplay his concerns to [Mrs Farmer], giving the impression that things were fine with him when, in reality, they were not.

‘[Emails Mr Pill sent] suggest the decision to dismiss [Mrs Farmer] was predetermined prior to the February 6, 2025, and prior to receiving the report from Peninsula. This undermines Mr Pill’s credibility when it comes to looking at the real reason for [Mrs Farmer’s] dismissal.

‘I therefore conclude that Mr Pill emphasised performance issues as a justification to dismiss [Mrs Farmer], when in reality, her pregnancy and related sick leave was the principal reason for her dismissal.’

A further claim of failure to deal with a flexible working request was dismissed.

Mrs Farmer, of Market Harborough, Leicestershire, told the Daily Mail Mr Pill had discussed her performance informally with her.

‘There wasn’t a set performance review,’ she said. ‘There wasn’t any written documentation or anything like that.

‘We went to the pub and had a discussion about my performance. It was a positive conversation and I went on to get performance bonuses.

‘Then suddenly, you know, seven working days after I told him that I was pregnant, my performance became an issue.’

Mrs Farmer said: ‘I spent a lot of time on the phone crying to a lot of different people, early in pregnancy (feeling) very nauseous, very sick.

‘I had suffered a miscarriage before the pregnancy and was worried it could happen again.

‘It was very stressful. For the first six months, I couldn’t really speak to anybody without just breaking down.’

She went on to give birth to her first child, a daughter named Aliah, who is now 18 months old.

Mrs Farmer said she endured almost two years of stress between lodging her tribunal paperwork in February 2024 and the five-day hearing in December, but is now looking for a new role.

‘It was a long challenging two years,’ she added. ‘But I knew that I had to fight for justice not only for myself but for my daughter all the women that have been and will be in this position.’

She paid tribute to the charity Pregnant Then Screwed which supported her during the ‘dark time’ and said she plans to offer her help to the organisation through its mentor programme for women going through the tribunal process.