Mum gets £90,000 payout after boss pulled job offer when he asked about kids' ages

A mum has won more than £90,000 in a sex discrimination case after a London boss took away her job offer when she found out her children’s ages.

Fong Fong Lee was quizzed “out of the blue” by a London property firm’s Vice President Wenting Zhu about how old her children were despite it having “no relevance to the issues in the meeting”, an employment tribunal heard.

Mrs Zhu rescinded the offer for a £68,500 a year role at R & F Properties QS, days after Ms Lee had resigned from her previous job to take up the new role.

The company, which has an office in Vauxhall but has its headquarters in China, had formally offered Ms Lee a job as a senior marketing manager on September 27 2022.

However, she was asked to attend a Microsoft Teams meeting with Mrs Zhu on October 20 2022, which was described as a “fresh interview” by the tribunal.

During the call, Ms Lee explained her children “were four years old and that one was approaching one year of age.”

Six days later the job offer was withdrawn and Ms Lee was paid one week's notice.

Ms Lee left the interview “feeling deflated, confused and frightened” and she was stressed and worried that the job would be taken away because of what Mrs Zhu had said to her, London South Employment Tribunal heard.

She was upset about becoming unemployed, having given up her stable job to take up the role.

At the tribunal, R&F claimed they could not employ Ms Lee as there was a “freeze on headcount” which came directly from China.

It added that the question about her children was to “build rapport”.

But Employment Judge Musgrave-Cohen did not accept the company’s evidence and ruled in favour of Ms Lee.

The court found Ms Lee would not have been asked the same question if she was a man and she was awarded £91,597.

The tribunal said: “She was the primary breadwinner in the family and had young children, including one under one year of age.

“Losing her job threw her into a state of panic, humiliation and upset due to the instability the unexpected news caused and made her worry about whether she should hide the fact she has young children from prospective employers.”