I am not going to comment on the case of the soldier who has just won a case against the Ministry of Defence at employment tribunal; it was found that, by the manner in which she had been treated over child care arrangements, she had been discriminated against on grounds of both sex & race. In my experience, the brief but sensational press reports of what must have been at least one full day of hearing cannot by their nature do justice to the facts & arguments in the case; and when you know more you all too often find that the complaint which appears silly or trivial or greedy, the employer merely venial in their error, turns out to be a symptom of troubling attitudes prevalent in an organisation.
What took me aback in reading about the case was finding out that there is a category “Foreign and Commonwealth soldier” – it is not just Gurkhas who serve.
There is a whole section devoted to Foreign & Commonwealth on the Army Families Federation website, from which it is clear that these soldiers face a whole number of issues on immigration, family & citizenship rights. There is even an MOD guide which gives official advice on child care & ensuring your child’s safety:
Being a parent is a demanding, 24 hour a day job … Childcare in the UK is well regulated … Parents (including single parents) are responsible for ensuring they have arrangements in place for childcare so that they are able to fulfil all of their Army duties. If any children are to be left in the care of someone who is not a close relative for a period of over 28 days this is called private fostering. The Army Welfare Service, the British Forces Work Service overseas or your UK Local Authority Children Services department will be able to provide you with more advice.
Somewhere, somehow, the soldier who brought the complaint of sex & race discrimination got lost in this tangle of advice, regulation & guidance & the tribunal agreed though the case may now of course go to the Employment Appeal tribunal.
I remember how astonished I was, in the 1960s, to see hanging over the pavement in Bridgetown Barbados the familiar red white & blue roundel of London Transport. It marked a recruitment office which enthusiastically encouraged Bajans to come & help keep London moving. Earlier Enoch Powell has poached Jamaican nurses to keep our hospitals functioning . And we know what happens to people who answer the call, proud to help, but find they join not ‘us’ but ‘these people’
