This lovely summer has seen many young mothers pushing prams out in the sunshine and it would be easy to conclude that many must be reaping the benefits of the raft of ‘family-friendly’ legislation introduced over the last 5-10 years.  However, the last 12 months actually saw an increase of almost 25 per cent in people turning to Citizens Advice for help over discrimination related to pregnancy.

Employers are prohibited from treating employees less favourably either because of their pregnancy (or an illness arising from it) or because they are on maternity leave or trying to exercise their right to maternity leave. Employees may be able to claim they have been harassed or indirectly discriminated against on the grounds of sex during pregnancy or maternity leave, and compensation for successful discrimination claims is uncapped.

So what can be done to properly support pregnant employees or those on maternity leave and thus minimise potential claims?

Communicate, communicate, communicate!

As an absolute minimum, employees should be made aware of their rights during pregnancy and know how to exercise them. Having a comprehensive Maternity and Equal Opportunities Policy in place is a useful starting point. Employers need to ensure such policies are properly communicated to employees and applied consistently.

Ensuring effective communication with employees before, during and after maternity leave is crucial.  Legislation says that contact during maternity leave must be limited to what is ‘reasonable’ – not that employers should ignore the employee completely!

It can be difficult to manage maternity leave absence due to its often uncertain duration, but having open discussions with pregnant employees early on helps both parties and can minimise potential problems later on during the leave. If problems do arise nonetheless, employees should be encouraged to raise their concerns through the company’s grievance procedure in the first instance, rather than immediately raising a Tribunal claim.

Right to return to work

It can often be tempting to consider making temporary members of staff covering maternity leave permanent, particularly where they are perceived to be ‘better’ than the employee on maternity leave. However, employers need to remember that employees who have been absent for 26 weeks or less are legally entitled to return to the role they held before their maternity leave, or to a suitable alternative role, on no less favourable terms.

In the second period of maternity leave (known as additional maternity leave) employees also have considerable employment protection regarding their right to return to work.

If an employee is dismissed because of her pregnancy or maternity status, the dismissal will be automatically unfair and the employer is likely to find itself faced with unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.

Flexible working

Flexible working is particularly common among women wishing to strike a balance between work and childcare responsibilities and employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service are entitled to request a variation to their working arrangements, and it’s important that an employer handles such a request with care.

Employers are legally obliged to deal with such requests in a reasonable manner and notify employees of the outcome within 3 months. Refusing such requests could potentially give rise to an indirect sex discrimination claim as it’s commonly accepted that more women than men have childcare responsibilities and are effectively disadvantaged by a requirement to work full time.

Don’t forget

Most of the rights a pregnant employee has are the same for an adopting employee, and shared parental leave has some shared rights too, particularly with regard to the right to return to work.

Worried or want to know more?  Then contact us here at Su Allen HR.

 

 

 

Su Allen HR helps employers by providing a range of HR support that includes advice on how to handle difficult situations, writing clear policies which ensure fairness and consistency in all aspects of managing employees, and providing coaching and training where required. Contact us on 01582 883299 if you’d like to hear more.