A woman who accepted £215,000 in a discrimination settlement has said she took the case to ensure no other woman is “penalised for taking time off to have a child”.

Maeve Bradley held the role of assistant vice president at Citibank in Belfast when she took maternity leave in 2023.

She alleged she was excluded from a promotion opportunity during her maternity leave, while instead the firm promoted the person who had covered her absence.

The case was settled without admission of liability.

The complainant was supported in taking the discrimination case against her former employer by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.

The commission said Mrs Bradley had believed she would be in line for a promotion when she returned to work after having her baby.

But prior to going back to the office, she applied for reduced hours because of her childcare needs.

When she contacted management about this request, she was offered an alternative role rather than going back to her own job with fewer working hours.

The commission said she was not comfortable with this suggestion because she had no experience of the other post.

At that point she asked management if anybody on her team had been promoted, and was told the person covering her assistant vice president job had been promoted to vice president.

Mrs Bradley argued this move was unlawful because she had not been given the opportunity for promotion while on maternity leave.

She raised a formal grievance with the firm but it did not uphold her complaint.

She said the company advised that performance was the deciding factor for whether someone gets promoted.

She then issued legal proceedings against the firm, alleging sex discrimination, disability discrimination and victimisation.

The commission said these cases were based on “the time taken to deal with her grievance and her belief that there was a lack of adequate effort to support her return to work”.

Mrs Bradley told BBC News NI that she had loved her job and the people she worked with.

“Everything was always perfect on my performance every year, there was never any complaint,” she said.

“All I did was go off and have a little baby. I expected to come back and return to work as any mother does.

“I feel the company could have valued females and valued mothers, and made them feel their skills are important regardless if they go off to have a baby.”

The whole experience had been incredibly stressful and disheartening, she added.

The commission’s chief commissioner Geraldine McGahey, said issues relating to pregnancy were the most common complaints of sex discrimination it receives.

“The laws protecting women from sex discrimination were introduced almost 50 years ago to ensure women can return to and remain in the workforce and not be disadvantaged because of pregnancy or family responsibilities,” Ms McGahey said.

“Maeve should have been considered for the promotion.”

The case was settled by Citibank without admission of liability and Mrs Bradley’s employment with the firm was terminated as part of the settlement.

A spokesperson for Citi said: “We were keen to retain Ms Bradley as an employee at Citi and are disappointed that we were unable to reach an agreement on her return to work.

“We appreciate the engagement of Ms Bradley and the Equality Commission in resolving this matter.

“At Citi, we strive to foster an inclusive workplace. Ensuring that our standards are well understood and complied with by everyone at Citi is a continuous, proactive process.”