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Woman awarded $500 after 9-year fight

LONDON, May 4 (UPI) -- London's high court has awarded a British woman $500 after a nine-year legal battle over maternity leave back pay.

Michelle Alabaster, 36, said she had pursued the case on principle and was proud to have closed a loophole in Britain's labor laws.

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The dispute began when Alabaster was given a raise six weeks before she was due to start her maternity leave in December 1995. The secretary later received maternity leave payments based on her previous salary, The Independent reported.

Britain's Equal Pay Act requires women claiming unfair treatment at work due to pregnancy to show a man in the same situation would have been treated differently.

The case was initially directed against her former employer, but as they had followed government regulations, the main defendant became the Secretary of State for Social Security. In March last year, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled in her favor and Tuesday, the Court of Appeal in London found the judgment also applied to English law.

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