A NEW mum is still waiting to be paid money owed to her after winning a sex discrimination claim against her former employer.

Sarah Thomas, a senior negotiator at The Property Shop, on Warrington Road, was appointed branch manager of the company’s Widnes base on a trial period, after working at the Penketh estate agents for two-and-a-half years.

But her step up the career ladder was taken away weeks later.

The claim was made against previous owners HLBR Development Ltd. The store is now under new management.

She said: “I was absolutely devastated and annoyed. I was just told over the telephone.

“I loved my job, I loved everything and the people I worked with. I had no problems there.”

Sarah, of Long Lane, Orford, was six months pregnant at the time and had to be signed off work with stress due to the blow.

Concerned medical staff advised the then mum-of-one, who had suffered 11 miscarriages in four years, to start maternity leave last February – two months early – because they feared for the health of her unborn child.

She claims she was not always given her maternity pay on time.

Sarah said: “I felt horrendous but I had to plod on for my two little girls, Grace and Jessica. It has put strain on my relationship with my husband Neil because he is trying to work all of the hours God sends.”

Solicitors were drafted in to resolve the claim and with the settlement expected to be finalised this February, Sarah booked a family holiday to Majorca in June for husband Neil, a lift engineer, her parents Ron and Lynne and her daughters Grace, aged three and one-year-old Jessica.

She said: “My parents deserve a holiday, they had their own business for years and my dad has got an illness, he was diagnosed with chronic leukaemia lymphoma more than four years ago.”

The mum-of-two now fears that she will have to cancel the two-week trip because she cannot afford to go.

The 30-year-old was due to return to work in February after giving birth to Jessica last May but was told her position had been made redundant.

Bailiffs could be now be drafted in to obtain the remaining bill, which cannot be disclosed due to a confidentiality clause.

Nick Davis, a solicitor at Albinson Napier & Co, of Bold Street, said: “I am using all available court procedures to recover the money she is owed.”

A spokesman from HLBR Developments Ltd said: “It was a misunderstanding from start to finish.

“Sarah was always paid when she was off sick or with her child.”

Sarah has now been offered a job with a bank and is awaiting her start date.