A RESTAURANT supervisor who once served breakfast in bed to Sven-Goran Eriksson has taken her former hotel bosses to a tribunal claiming they refused her flexible working hours after having a baby.

Single parent Angela Parry claims the De Vere Carden Park Hotel at Broxton, refused to be reasonable after the birth of her first child, Emilia, in January.

Miss Parry, 38, of St Oswald's Close, Malpas, had hoped the four-star hotel would take into account her six years of service and reward her with more flexible working hours.

Instead, she claims they refused to allow her to return to her £14,000 full-time job as restaurant supervisor, in which she came into contact with guests such as David Beckham and the England soccer team manager.

However, this is denied by the hotel which says they offered her alternative employment and say its was Miss Parry's decision to leave their employment.

Last year Miss Parry helped Carden Park win the De Vere Team of the Year award and was pictured in The Chronicle celebrating the hotel's success.

Chosen for their consistency and quality of service during 'mystery guest' visits, the hotel's breakfast team was singled out from 35 other hotels for special praise.

On Monday, her claim alleging unfair dismissal and sex discrimination went before an employment tribunal panel in Liverpool who must now decide whether she was unfairly treated.

Miss Parry has also launched a claim for a month's unpaid wages and three days holiday pay after handing in her notice during the summer.

She believes she would have been treated differently if she was a man and says she had no option but to quit her job.

Her case comes as the Equal Opportunities Commission calls for a statutory code of practice to protect pregnant women in the workplace.

A recent investigation found that about 1,000 women a year in England and Wales have to take legal action after being sacked because they were pregnant.

Miss Parry worked a 39-hour week at Carden Park prior to the birth of her daughter, managing the hotel's main restaurant for breakfast and lunch.

Hoping to return to work from maternity leave on June 21, she says she was stunned when the hotel 'failed' to find her alternative work to her restaurant supervisor role.

She claims the hotel dragged its feet in finding her an alternative job, only offering infrequent night/weekend work which she could not take on because of her daughter.

Miss Parry says she asked the hotel if they could reduce her 39 hour week to 32 but claims she was told she could not go back into the restaurant.

She turned up for her first day of work on July 5 after almost a month waiting to be allocated another job.

However, on arriving at the hotel that morning Miss Parry says she was told to go home by the hotel's human resources manager Christine Lowry.

In her statement to the tribunal, Miss Parry said she had no option to her hand in her resignation to hotel general manager Hamish Ferguson.

'I feel that I have been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against because I am a mother who wants to care for her baby as well as work,' she said.

'I moved to Malpas because I wanted to be closer to work and enrolled Emilia into a nursery close to work. I was not paid for the months notice that I gave nor the three days holiday I am owed.

'Even though my contract does not state hours of work, I strongly believe that a company the size of De Vere could have easily offered me alternative work, especially taking into account my outstanding service.'

Miss Parry added: 'Why should I have to take a pay cut and accept less status because I have had a baby?'

In his statement to the tribunal, Hamish Ferguson said: 'A compromise proposal of 7am till 3pm had been put to Angela Parry but she rejected this because she was unable to arrange child care prior to 8am in the morning.

'Other employment opportunities had been discussed but these had been rejected by her because they involved some weekends/evenings or because they involved a reduction in her hourly rate

'Secondly, while we are were able to find work for Angela Parry to do between 8am and 4.30pm this was not at supervisory level and she was not willing to take a reduction in pay.'

The tribunal panel is expected to reach its decision next year.