A 2005 investigation by the Equal Opportunities Commission (now the Equalities and Human Rights Commission) found that pregnant women experienced a wide range of negative treatment at work, including:
- Being dismissed or unfairly chosen for redundancy
- Being denied promotion and pay increases
- Having enforced changes to their job, such as having to take lower paid work
- Being excluded from training
- Being refused paid time off for antenatal care
- Subtle changes in attitudes of colleagues and employers, ranging up to overt sexual and verbal harassment
Example: Miss Walton worked 13 hours per week over two or three days as a maid at the Nottingham Gateway Hotel Ltd. She told her employer she was pregnant. After that, she was not rostered for any more work. Her employer tried to argue that there was not enough work available, but the tribunal found another employee had been allocated more than her usual hours.
The law today
Sex discrimination law (Equality Act 2010) covers all employed, freelance and self-employed women, as well as agency workers and freelancers. It protects you against unfair treatment and dismissal because of pregnancy, breastfeeding, recently given birth, or because you want to take or have taken maternity leave.
If you’re pregnant, you have the right to 52 weeks’ maternity leave, and you may qualify for maternity pay and other benefits.
What’s more, you have the right to take reasonable paid time off for antenatal care. Even if you work part-time, your employer cannot insist that you book appointments outside working hours. It may help to tell your employer about your appointments as early as possible, to discuss how your work will be covered during your absence, and try to minimise disruption as much as you can.
You also have the right to health and safety protection for you and your baby, for example, no heavy lifting, somewhere to sit down, or extra rest breaks.
Legally, you don’t have to tell your employer about your pregnancy until the 15th week before your baby is due. This is also the latest date for giving notice to take maternity leave. You might choose to tell them earlier if you need to take time off for antenatal care or you want to request action to protect your health and safety.
Apart from your first appointment, you may have to show your employer proof of your pregnancy and your antenatal appointments. Your employer should record pregnancy-related absence separately from other sickness absence, and the former should not be taken into account as part of redundancy or disciplinary decisions.
Have you suffered unfavourable treatment?
- Have you been selected for redundancy because you’re pregnant?
- Have you been dismissed because you’re pregnant or on maternity leave? (Not because of gross misconduct or poor performance.)
- Were you refused training or promotion opportunities because you’re pregnant?
- Were your workload, pay or hours reduced because you’re pregnant? (Tell HMRC if you think your employer is trying to avoid paying Statutory Maternity Pay.)
- Was your request for flexible work refused?
- Were you refused reasonable paid time off for antenatal appointments, scans and classes recommended by a registered medical practitioner?
- Were you put under pressure to resign because you’re pregnant?
- Are there health and safety risks because you’re pregnant, but no risk assessment was carried out?
If you can answer yes to any of those questions, you may have a sex discrimination claim. To win your case, you don’t have to compare your treatment with how a man might have been treated; rather, you must show that you were only treated this way because you were pregnant.
First, talk to your HR manager or union representative. If that doesn’t work, find out whether your employer has a grievance procedure, and raise a formal grievance. The next step would be to contact ACAS Early Conciliation to take the matter to mediation.
The final option is to make a claim of discrimination or unfair dismissal at the employment tribunal – however, there are strict time limits (usually within three months less one day) so you should obtain legal advice promptly. As employment law specialists, of course, we can help with that.
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