Claim by sacked nurse fails

(First Edition)

A NURSE'S claim that she was sacked for having an abortion because she feared her child would be born with cystic fibrosis was rejected by an industrial tribunal yesterday.

Lesley Weatherson, 26, who already has a four-year-old daughter suffering from the disease, said she lost her job when she told her nursing home boss she intended to have a termination.

Mrs Weatherson said Kenneth West, of the Peel House Nursing Home, Stubbington, Hampshire, confronted her a day before she was due to have the abortion.

At a hearing at Southampton in November she said he told her: 'If you go ahead and do what you are doing tomorrow do not bother coming back.'

But in its findings, published yesterday, the tribunal rejected Mrs Weatherson's claim of sexual discrimination.

The chairman said: 'Mrs Weatherson has failed to prove that Mr West used the words alleged or that she was dismissed or constructively dismissed as a result of words that she alleged.'

Mr West told the November hearing he did not even know Mrs Weatherson, of Warsash, Hampshire, was pregnant when he decided to end her contract. He said: 'I have got nothing against abortion. Members of staff have had abortions before and they have not been sacked.'

Mr West said he disliked her attitude towards him, other staff members and patients.