Parminder Sahota - Suspended for trying for a baby

March 12, 2009 by Baby Chums
Filed under: News

A tribunal heard how Parminder Sahota, 37, an immigration officer highly praised for catching a terror suspect was suspended for taking too much time off to have IVF treatment.

Parminder said: “IVF takes over your whole life - you cannot think straight. Ultimately, this has had a catastrophic effect on my career and myself. My life has been a nightmare.”

Parminder Sahota who is married, told her employers the reason for her absence, yet she was disciplined and sent home after taking 12 days off for her fertility treatment course.

With her glowing record and identifying a terror suspect on a Eurostar train, one manager even accused her of, “only being interested in getting pregnant”, she has claimed. “I was shocked – it was entirely inappropriate.”

The UK Border Agency suspended Mrs Sahota in March last year over her absences in 2007. She challenged the Home Office ruling, claiming IVF did not count as sick days and she had been under considerable stress and in pain.

‘When I look back now, it’s a wonder how I coped,’ she said.

The challenge failed but months later she was offered another job, despite no reason being given for her suspension.

By this time, she had been signed off with ‘work-related’ depression. Mrs Sahota, who lives in Paris, is claiming sex and race discrimination. The hearing, in Kent, continues.