IVF worker sacked after miscarriages

Ms Kasiri worked as an embryologist

A scientist sacked from Lord Robert Winston's world-renowned fertility clinic days after her fourth miscarriage has won her case at an employment tribunal.

Embryologist Saghar Kasiri said she had been treated "without compassion" and her absences from work seen as "an inconvenience" by managers at Imperial College London.

Ms Kasiri had claimed sexual discrimination and unfair dismissal.

The full verdict of the tribunal has not yet been announced, but a date has been set for a hearing in August to determine compensation, indicating a victory on at least one claim.

'Lost patience'

Ms Kasiri was recruited to her £31,000 a year post at Imperial's IVF clinic at Hammersmith Hospital by Lord Winston in 1998.

I think she now feels vindicated to some extent Teresa Harrison, solicitor

But she was told she had been selected for redundancy just days after experiencing her fourth pregnancy in 19 months.

Ms Kasiri told the tribunal, held in March, that she felt her line managers, Karin Dawson and Suzie Duffy, had "lost patience" with her when she had to take sick leave after her fourth miscarriage.

She added: "I couldn't believe that two managers working for an IVF clinic, whose objective is to assist women like me to become pregnant, could be so unsympathetic."

Ms Kasiri said concerns she had raised about colleagues working practices had not been taken into account when staff were being selected for redundancy.

She was made redundant in May last year after the number of private patients at the clinic fell.

Although Ms Kasiri has not yet found another job, she has since given birth to a baby boy.

'Exhausted'

Her solicitor Teresa Harrison, of the Barnet Law Service, told BBC News Online: "Ms Kasiri has been successful and we are delighted, though that has to be tempered until we know exactly how much the tribunal has accepted her evidence and on which points she has won.

"She was exhausted by the experience of the tribunal, and that obviously took its toll.

"She was very heavily pregnant while she was giving evidence.

"I think she now feels vindicated to some extent."

The tribunal's full judgement is expected to be published shortly, and a date has been set for a remedies hearing at the end of August.

A spokeswoman for Imperial College declined to comment.