Football club bosses deny sex discrimination claims

BOSSES at Hearts FC allegedly "victimised" the club's football secretary when she returned to work from pregnancy by stopping her from working match days.

Louise MacKenzie, 34, claims club bosses froze her out of her "prestigious" job because she had been off ill following pregnancy.

The Edinburgh side denies sex discrimination, insisting match-day work was never in her contract and it only drafted in other staff "for operational reasons".

The club's former boss, Csaba Laszlo, previously told the Edinburgh hearing he needed two secretaries to cover seven days a week when he joined the club in 2008.

He was granted an extra secretary to work alongside Mrs MacKenzie. But that affected Mrs MacKenzie who, on returning to work after giving birth in June 2009, found her new colleague was getting a share of match-day work, which earns overtime pay.

She said that having been in the job since 2001, she was entitled to work on match days, because "I always have".

Her claims were rejected by her boss Konstantin Kornakov, the club's assistant sport director.

He said yesterday: "There was a period preceding two games where she was off with an illness,

so we had to find somebody to do match-day cover at short notice.

"I had a look at her contract and it said she would work as and when required by the club, so it was not guaranteed core hours."

A judgment would be sent to both parties within six weeks.