Pregnancy Redundancy Protection

Did you know that a study conducted by Equality and Human Rights Commission in March 2016 found the following:

1.      1 in 20 mothers were made redundant at some point during pregnancy, maternity leave or on return from maternity leave.

2.      3 in 10 mothers found that no other employees were made redundant in the same period.

3.      Possible discriminatory or negative experience connected to pregnancy was reported by 77% of mothers.

4.      Negative impacts on opportunities, status and job security were reported by 50% of women.

Whilst we all hear and are possibly aware of such inequalities towards pregnant women and new mothers, looking at the above statistics makes it sink in a lot more and clearly this is an issue.

The Women and Equalities Committee made recommendations to deal with above issues and in January 2019 the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy consulted about extending redundancy protections for pregnant women and new mothers. It was concluded that the existing protection should be extended by 6 months after the end of maternity leave. Maria Miller (“Ms Miller”) former chair of the Woman and Equalities Committee was not too keen on this approach and proposed the Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Bill (“the Bill”).

There are currently protections in place redundancy protection for pregnant women and new mothers. The two main sources are:

1.      The Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 SI/1999/3312 (“the MAPLE Regulations”); and

2.      The general protection against discrimination on the grounds of sex and pregnancy and maternity in the Equality Act 2010 (“the EA 2010”).

Despite the above protections, there still appears to be a negative attitude towards pregnant women and new mothers. Ms Miller describes the current protections as “woefully inadequate”. Thus, the Bill proposes that if the dismissal by an employer occurs during pregnancy, maternity leave, or the six-month period after the end of maternity leave, then it is automatically unfair. This suggests that there need not to be a causative link between the pregnancy and dismissal.

There is very little information available to us on the Bill and it will be interesting to see if the Bill will pass! The text of the Bill has not yet been published and is scheduled for its second reading on 12 March 2021… so, watch this space!