What Are My Responsibilities as an Employer Towards Pregnant Employees?

As an employer, you must grant your employees certain rights relating to their employment with you. You are also obliged to follow specific rules regarding their employment. However, where your employees fall pregnant, the rights you owe them and your obligations towards them change. Therefore, you must be aware of your responsibilities towards your pregnant employees so that you can ensure you grant what you legally owe. If you fail this, they could bring a claim against you at an employment tribunal. This article will explain your responsibilities towards your pregnant employees. In addition, it will outline the four main legal entitlements you must provide to pregnant employees.  

What Rights Do Pregnant Employees Have?

When your workers are pregnant, they have four main legal entitlements. Therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that you allow them these. These are as follows:

1. time off work on full pay for antenatal care;
2. maternity leave;
3. maternity pay or maternity allowance; or
4. protection against discrimination, dismissal and unfair treatment.

Antenatal Care

Your pregnant employee has a right to paid time off work at their standard pay rate for antenatal care. Notably, this does not only concern antenatal appointments. For example, if a doctor or nurse suggests that they attend antenatal or parenting classes, you must also allow them paid time off to attend these. 

In addition to the requirement to allow your pregnant employees paid time off for antenatal care, you must allow the pregnant woman’s partner, husband, or civil partner two days off work to attend any antenatal care with her. However, this time off is on an unpaid basis. 

Maternity Leave

Your pregnant employees are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave regardless of how:

• long they have worked for you;
• many hours they work; or
• much you pay them.

This right exists from the first day of their employment with you. However, your pregnant staff who are not employees are not entitled to maternity leave.

Additionally, your pregnant employee must let you know when they wish their statutory maternity leave to begin. They can take their leave 11 weeks before their baby’s due date. Likewise, they can do this once they notify you of the baby’s due date. Where they wish to make changes to this date, they must:

• tell you with a minimum of four weeks notice of the new date where they wish to take leave sooner than planned; and
• notify you with a minimum of four weeks notice from their old date where they want to take leave later.

Your pregnant employee can decide not to take maternity leave or not to take all of the maternity leave at once. However, they are legally required to be away from work for two weeks immediately after the birth or where they work in a factory for four weeks.This is compulsory maternity leave.

Further, where your pregnant employee falls ill with a pregnancy-related illness and is off work within four weeks before her baby is due, her maternity leave will automatically start. This is not affected by any previously agreed arrangements.

Maternity Pay

There are legal requirements to pay pregnant employees a minimum amount of maternity pay. This is known as statutory maternity pay. It applies where your employee has (after the 15th week before the baby’s due date):

• worked for you for at least 26 weeks in a row; and
• are earning an average of a minimum of £120 per week.

However, you may wish to provide more than the statutory maternity pay. This is enhanced or contractual maternity pay. If you do this, you must detail the amount and duration of this within your employee’s employment contract. Where your pregnant employee is not entitled to maternity pay they may be eligible to receive maternity allowance from the government.

Further, your pregnant employee must let you know when they wish their statutory maternity pay to begin. It should start as soon as their maternity leave starts. Where your pregnant worker falls ill with a pregnancy-related illness and is off work within four weeks before her baby is due, her statutory maternity pay will automatically start. Importantly, you cannot change this through any previously agreed arrangements. Where your pregnant employee’s baby arrives earlier than expected, their maternity pay can start the day after the arrival.

Protection Against Discrimination, Dismissal and Unfair Treatment

It is illegal for you to discriminate against your pregnant employees on the basis of being pregnant. Discrimination is illegal on the basis that they:

• are pregnant;
• have an illness related to their pregnancy or time off as a result of it; and
• have taken or plan to take maternity leave or pay.

It does not matter how long the pregnant person has worked for you. In all cases, the rules on discrimination apply. It also does not matter if the pregnant woman is an employee, worker, or self-employed where the latter requires them to do the work personally. However, where the pregnant person is self-employed, you should be mindful that the law in this area is complicated.

The following actions can amount to discrimination against your pregnant worker:

• dismissal;
• failing to offer a pregnant worker a job;
• making a change to their employment terms, including pay; 
• making them work during maternity leave; and
• preventing them from returning to work because they are breastfeeding.

If you wish to make changes to your pregnant employee’s employment contract terms and conditions, you must get their consent to do so. Otherwise, you will be in breach of the contract. When you dismiss a pregnant worker, you must give them a reason for doing so in writing. 

Health and Safety at Work for Pregnant Employees

As an employer, you must assess risks at work to your pregnant employee and her baby. You are also required to do this for an employee who has become a new mother in the past six months and when your employee is breastfeeding. 

This assessment can be a single assessment for the whole workplace. However, it is good practice to assess each employee individually, including agency workers and the self-employed. Indeed, a pregnant worker is entitled to know the result of their risk assessment. You should also engage in regular discussions about health and safety with your pregnant employee.

Additionally, you must take reasonable action to remove any risks identified, including amending your pregnant employee’s work hours or giving her a different type of work. The types of risks identified could be those related to:

• lifting or carrying heavy items;
• long periods of standing or sitting, absent from adequate breaks;
• particularly low or high temperatures;
• long hours of work; or
• being exposed to toxic substances.

If you cannot reduce or remove the risk identified, you must temporarily change your employee’s working conditions and hours. You must also let your pregnant employee know that you could not remove the risk. If a temporary change to working conditions and hours is not possible, you should offer your pregnant employee another role but with the same rate of pay and no less favourable terms. 

If, however, you are unable to offer your pregnant employee another role or unable to remove any identified risks, you should suspend your employee on full pay. This will last until you can make the workplace safe again for them or when they start their maternity leave.

Key Takeaways

When your employee falls pregnant, the rules surrounding her employment change. There are four main legal requirements to note. You must provide time off work on full pay for antenatal care, maternity leave, maternity pay or maternity allowance. Likewise, you must ensure protection against discrimination, dismissal and unfair treatment. Some rules apply to their health and safety, requiring you to offer them another role or even suspend them on full pay.

If you need help understanding your responsibilities towards pregnant workers, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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