pounds 35,000 for mother refused job share

A mother has won pounds 35,000 because her employers refused to let her return to work on a part-time basis after the birth of her second child.

Sarah Rolls, 35, of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, resigned from IPC Magazines when the company would not let her work on a job-share basis.

Ms Rolls' claim was supported by the Equal Opportunities Commission and was settled on the first day of an industrial tribunal hearing, when IPC agreed to pay pounds 35,000 in an out- of-court settlement.

Ms Rolls said it had been a "long hard slog" to get the settlement and added: "I only hope that other people benefit from the action and IPC are not so arrogant in the future."

Ms Rolls said she had not taken the action for the money. "Long-term financial security far outweighs the short-term financial gain," she said. "It's been the principle. I would have preferred to stay in my career."

Ms Rolls worked for IPC for six years. She was "advertorials" manager for Essentials and Woman and Home magazines when she left the company in September 1994. She took maternity leave for the birth of her first child and returned to work full-time. Ms Rolls took maternity leave for her second child but decided she could not combine full-time work with her role as a mother of two and asked to return to work on a part-time, work-share basis.

Kamlesh Bahl, chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, said high-quality part-time work was the best way for many women to combine a career with motherhood.

She added: "The commission would like part-time and job-sharing to be made more accessible to women and men in management and senior posts."