An in-house lawyer (and a mother of triplets) at British Gas has won her claims for direct sex discrimination and less favourable treatment on the grounds of part-time working after she was given the lowest possible score for "focus" during a redundancy process. The judge found that Ms Long, who had worked three days a week as part of a job share, was unreasonably criticised for not continuing to work past her contracted hours and days when her job share partner resigned. She was placed on a performance improvement plan and then selected for redundancy and her performance was rated by reference to the year that included her maternity leave which capped her score at "achieving expectations". While there were other errors in the scoring matrix and process, the judge was particularly critical of the use of "focus" as a criteria and stated that this supported an inference that her part-time status and family responsibilities were being (albeit unconsciously) held against her.

The amount of compensation has not yet been awarded but this is a timely reminder of the importance of fair and objective scoring criteria in a redundancy process and the need for up-to-date policies and training with regards to equality and diversity to mitigate against the risk of expensive and embarrassing claims.