New Bill to protect pregnant women and new mothers from redundancy

[RedToothBrush]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pregnant-women-coronavirus-redundant-job-cuts-discrimination-new-mothers-a9606211.html
Pregnant women and new mothers ‘laid off’ amid coronavirus crisis
‘In many cases, it is obvious they have been unfairly selected for redundancy. Our advisors regularly deal with women who are deeply distressed by their circumstances. Many of them are crying,’ says charity director

Warnings come as leading national charities and trade unions lent their support to a bill drawn up by Conservative MP Maria Miller. The bill aims to bolster legal protections to safeguard pregnant women and new mothers from being made redundant.

The Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Protection Bill, which has already attracted cross-party backing, will be put forward in the House of Commons on Wednesday as a Ten-Minute Rule Bill.

This bill was actually in progress last year and got binned due to the election. So it's not covid related.

The bill would
^make it automatically unfair for an employer to dismiss a woman
by reason of redundancy if the dismissal occurs during pregnancy, maternity
leave or the six month period after the end of the pregnancy or maternity leave,
unless the employer’s business is closing down in the place where the woman
worked or the work she is employed to do is ceasing and she has not been
offered suitable alternative employment. Similar protections would also be
available for women who experience a stillbirth or miscarriage.^

The problem of course, remains women's ability to seek recourse in this situation and a lack of awareness of what rights a woman has.

But good news that its back on the agenda, but too late for many, and the rub is that the election has slowed its passage down (along with the new domestic violence bill).

[Aesopfable]

I am not sure about this. I not sure if not being able to make them redundant at all would actually be helpful or would simply make all young women a target. They are already a protected group under the Equality Act 2010 and there is an organisation with the specific remit to protect those with protected characteristic and take those employers who discriminate to court - EHRC. I wonder if it might be more effective to take a proper hard look at the EHRC and question whether they are actually doing their job of protecting women, pregnant or not.

[WhereAreWeNow]

Good to see this back on the agenda. I remember writing to my MP about it last year.