Maternity Leave – A convenient excuse for redundancy?

Are employers targeting pregnant women for redundancy?

Sunday’s Observer had me in a panic over potential redundancy.  I live in fear of the ‘consultation’ notification letter flying through the letter box.  According to the newspaper mothers on maternity leave are increasingly being singled out for redundancy during the economic downturn.

A new campaign has been launched, the Alliance against Pregnancy Discrimination, involving Maternity Alliance, Citizens Advice, Working Families, Maternity Action, the Fawcett Society and Gingerbread.  All of these groups are reporting an increase in pregnancy related discrimination in the workplace.

The key difficulty for women who believe they have been discriminated against because of pregnancy is that i) women have to prove discrimination and 2) they have to enforce those rights.  The advice for women facing redundancy who believe they are victims of discrimination is to:

1. Seek immediate advice from a specialist adviser who specialises in maternity discrimination
2. Go to Working Families helpline or the Equality and Human Rights Commission to seek further advice
3. Make a claim within three months (less a day) of the act complained of
4. Check your home contents insurance to see if you have legal expense cover as their is no legal aid to pay for a lawyer to represent you

The news release for the Alliance Against Pregnancy Discrimination campaign, certainly grabs your attention -  “30,000 women every year lose their jobs as a result of becoming pregnant“.  More worryingly, the Alliance believe that the recession has made matters worse.  There aim is to call on the Government to publicly state its commitment to preventing pregnancy discrimination at work during the recession and to reassert that making a woman redundant because she is pregnant, on, or returning from  maternity leave is illegal and will not be tolerated.

Are you worried about redundancy during mat leave too?

Sign the ePetition to ensure that the Government and employers actively enforce the law prohibiting workplace discrimination on pregnancy related ground and that the Government does not weaken the law on pregnancy discrimination in the Equality Bill.  The ePetition was submitted by Ellie Higham of Alliance against Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace, the deadline for signing is 27 November 2009.  As of 17th of June 09 there were 121 signatures.

Download the [Download not found] campaign PDF for more information.