A Guide for Pregnant and New Mothers

• if you are suspended from work by your employer for health and safety reasons and do not receive full pay


• if you are dismissed because your employer says they can't afford to pay you statutory maternity pay


• if you’re unable to go to a disciplinary meeting due to an illness connected with your pregnancy and your employer refuses to re-arrange the meeting


• if you're disciplined for having performance issues due to an illness connected with your pregnancy


• if your employer fails to carry out a health and safety risk assessment, forcing you to resign


• if your employer demotes or dismisses you, or stops you from having training or promotion opportunities, because you are pregnant or on maternity leave


• if your employer chooses you for redundancy because you are pregnant


• if your employer decides to make people redundant while you're on maternity leave but doesn't consult with you about it.

Your rights to pay and other terms and conditions during your pregnancy and maternity leave

You have the right to keep the same terms and conditions while you’re on maternity leave. However, you don’t have an automatic right to carry on getting your full pay, unless your contract of employment says you do. If you don’t get full pay during maternity leave, this is not pregnancy or maternity discrimination and it isn’t sex discrimination either. If you’re off work sick because of your pregnancy, you don’t have an automatic right to carry on getting your full pay. You do have the right to be paid whatever your employment contract says you should get when you’re off work sick.

Time off sick for pregnancy and your sickness record

Time that you take off sick because of an illness resulting from your pregnancy, such as high blood-pressure, shouldn’t count towards your sickness record at work. This includes any time you take off because of a miscarriage. If you are disciplined or dismissed because of your sickness record when you're pregnant, this may be discrimination. If your employer decides to dismiss you for taking too much time off sick when that time was due to being pregnant, this is likely to be pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Please contact Vaishali Thakerar, Ashley Hunt or Carrie-Ann Randall at Lawson West LLP for free legal advice. If you take time off because of an illness connected with your pregnancy, or because of a miscarriage, this should be recorded. You might want to keep your own records of time you have taken off sick because of your pregnancy. Not all time taken off sick when you’re pregnant may be to do with your pregnancy. For example, you may have a cold or the flu. If you’re off sick for a reason which has nothing to do with your pregnancy, this can be treated the same as the usual sick pay policy.

Time off for ante-natal care

If you are pregnant, you are entitled to paid time off for ante-natal care. Ante-natal care can include medical examinations, relaxation and parenting classes. Your employer must allow you to take time off for ante-natal appointments and to pay you for this time as long as what you’re asking for is reasonable.

Applying for a job if you are pregnant or on maternity leave

An employer can’t refuse to employ you just because you’re pregnant. They should base their decision on whether you have the skills to do the job, not on whether you are pregnant. You don’t have to tell the employer that you’re pregnant when you apply for the job. If you do tell the employer you are pregnant at interview and are not offered the job because of this then this will be pregnancy discrimination. If you don't tell the employer that you're pregnant and they give you the job, they must not dismiss you when they find out about the pregnancy.

What can you do about pregnancy and maternity discrimination?

Returning to work

You also have the legal right to request flexible working if you are an employee and have worked for your employer for 26 weeks continuously before applying. If having a baby means that you can no longer work on a full-time basis, you can request to work part-time, flexi-time, as a job share or from home under a flexible working arrangement. If you have had a flexible working request refused or feel you’ve been treated unfairly at work because you’re pregnant then please contact Vaishali Thakerar, Ashley Hunt or Carrie-Ann Randall on 0116 212 1000 today. To read more about your maternity rights visit the Employment section of our website by clicking here.