'I was forced out of job by bra tycoon'

Claire Woods, 28, who worked at a call centre for Mrs Mone's firm MJM International, told a tribunal that she was left feeling angry, hurt and frustrated when told she would have to increase her working hours from 9am till 3:30pm to 9am till 6pm, five days a week, or face demotion with a cut in pay.

She said she was forced to leave her job and is claiming sex discrimination against MJM.

Miss Woods told the tribunal in Glasgow how she asked to change her weekly working hours from three days of 9am to 6pm and two half days when her personal circumstances changed in January last year.

She said: "I split up with my partner and had a child who was three at the time. I asked for my hours to be changed to 9am to 3:30pm, Monday to Friday, so that my son wasn't in nursery 10 hours a day.

"I spoke to Michelle Mone. I told her that I would have to take on all the childcare responsibilities myself. I couldn't work until six. That's when the nursery closes. I asked what the possibility was of me changing my hours."

Miss Woods said her hours were changed and there was no indication it was temporary, but soon after she announced she was pregnant Mrs Mone's attitude changed.

Describing a meeting in March, Miss Wood said: "I remember it being very negative. She said the working hours I was doing weren't working for them. She felt the call centre being left without a supervisor for two-and-a-half hours on a daily basis wasn't good for our customers."

Miss Woods said her working relationship with Mrs Mone had previously been friendly. "I felt that had changed when I announced my pregnancy," she said. "I felt she was rather cold towards me. She seemed annoyed with me."

She said at later meetings with managing director Michael Mone, Michelle's husband, she was offered three options: working 9am to 6pm five days a week; working three hours a day as a call handler for 5 an hour - a 1.50 an hour drop in pay; or continuing her existing hours of 9am to 3:30pm, but as a call handler at a call handler's rate.

Miss Woods said she offered to revert to her previous hours, but this was not taken up.

She said she was left in tears after a meeting with Mrs Mone. "I felt victimised. I felt it was to do with my pregnancy," she said.

Miss Woods insisted it had never been suggested that the change to a 3:30 finishing time was temporary or on a trial basis. She felt none of the options offered were acceptable.

Miss Woods claimed Mrs Mone asked women at interviews if they planned to start a family and did not seem to appreciate staff taking time off for family reasons. Miss Woods added that Mrs Mone asked why she could not put her son in nursery from 8am to 6pm and that Mrs Mone told her: "I had to do ... I didn't see my children."

The company deny the claims and say Miss Woods's hours was reduced on a trial basis.

The hearing continues.