Campaigning groups Maternity Action and Working Families together with law firm Leigh Day & Co (the Alliance) have noted an increase in the number of calls they are receiving from pregnant women, or women on maternity leave who have been identified for redundancy in the recession.  Even before the recession the Equal Opportunities Commission had estimated that 30,000 women lose their jobs each year because of pregnancy or maternity discrimination.  They are calling on the Government to unsure that the right to equal treatment remains a central plank of employment law, whatever the economic situation.

Camilla Palmer, head of the employment discrimination team at law firm Leigh Day & Co has commented on this subject in the media, appearing on an edition of Woman’s Hour devoted to the topic.  She is particularly concerned that the new Equality Bill may make the position of women even worse. Currently a woman must not be treated ‘less favourably’ because she is pregnant or on maternity leave.  The Equality Bill appears to water this protection down by saying that she cannot be treated ‘less favourably than is reasonable’ (Clauses 16 and 17).

The Alliance is calling for

• Government and employers to actively enforce the law prohibiting workplace discrimination on pregnancy related grounds
• the Government not to weaken the law on pregnancy discrimination in the Equality Bill.
  

Recent examples of discrimination

• Ann was told she was being made redundant on the day she returned from maternity leave to her senior job in a big city firm. This was in March but the decision had been made months earlier in December when her ‘hunting instinct’ was marked lower than the other directors. Ann was not consulted during the process, and had only ever received good performance appraisals with no hint that she had underperformed until now. In April the firm claimed that there were no other suitable jobs for her and she would have to go freelance - very difficult with two young children under five. To top the whole degrading process off, Ann was told in a glass office with all her colleagues watching.
  
  
• While on maternity leave, Debbie was told that her job had been selected for redundancy. Her employer failed to tell her that two vacancies had arisen in her workplace for which she could have applied. When Debbie challenged this, she was told it was not company policy to inform ‘employees who are out of the business’.
   
• Tracy’s baby is due in October. She is an agency worker and since informing the agency they’ve stopped sending her work. The only contact they’ve made was a text message saying ‘warehouse has no vacancy. U need to be light duties. Do u want to risk the health of your child?’
   
• Two weeks before Angela was due to return from maternity leave, she dropped in on her employer to check arrangements for her return.  She found that the department she worked in had been closed down and the staff made redundant.  She had not been informed of this.  She asked what position she would hold when she returned from maternity leave and she was told that they didn’t know if they would have a position for her and she was to email the company for further information.
  
  Please email for more information, phone on 020 7650 1200, or complete our employment discrimination enquiry form.