A Pandora’s box of general protections under the Fair Work Act 2009

When nine-year veteran of Virgin Blue's public relations department in Brisbane, Leonie Vandeven advised her employer that she was pregnant with her second child, it would have been difficult to predict the consequences. According to a Federal Magistrates Court claim filed earlier this year, within weeks of revealing she was pregnant, Ms Vandeven had been assigned to tasks normally allocated to juniors, and her opportunities for overtime constricted. Furthermore, she was ostracised from management meetings, excised from Virgin's website as a media contact, and given an extraordinary homily on her 'role' by the (female) head of the public affairs department. 'I really don't know what your role is,' Ms Vandeven alleges she was told. 'I believe that you do not have the necessary skills and experience that the new management requires moving forward,' the department head added, concluding that Ms Vandeven had to 'decide whether you can live with the new regime.' The 'old regime' had only months earlier rated her work as 'highly effective' at a formal performance review. To compound matters, shortly afterwards, she was made redundant (Marx, 2011).