To refuse to work until reasonable adjustments are made (pregnancy)?

Apologies if someone else has said this, but under the Equalities Act any discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy is what’s called “automatically unfair”, this means the employer is guilty of discrimination unless they can prove their innocence (the other way around to most laws!). Payouts at tribunal are huge, the record for sex discrimination (only women can be pregnant!) is about £10 million. You might want to smile sweetly at your manager and say you are considering suing their a*! Good luck, remember you are enormously protected in law.

I'd get a fit note from my doctor stating that you require x, y, z adjustments.
If you go off sick don't say it's maternity related or it might trigger your mat leave (not sure how many weeks you are).
You could put an officual freuvance in instead and if nothung is done resign and claim constructive dismissal.

If they can't provide safe alternative work, or make adjustments to make it safe, then they must suspend on full pay.

Getting signed off risks starting maternity leave early, I think, though unsure so happy to be corrected by someone who knows better to the contrary.

OP, apologies if someone has already linked to the ACAS, but your manager could not be more wrong. Guidance here.

https://www.acas.org.uk/managing-your-employees-maternity-leave-and-pay/discrimination-because-of-pregnancy-and-maternity

If I were you, I would go to your GP and get it signed off sick for the remainder of your work. Your employer is being hugely unreasonable, can you imagine if something awful happened in your pregnancy because of this! Go to ACAS and get some sound advice, but in the meantime, I would be getting myself signed off.

While pregnant, I worked in a job that was mainly standing and was struggling with pelvic pain. I asked my boss if I could have 2x 15 mins breaks on top of my 30 mins lunch. I was told yes but unpaid. Then I found out my maternity pay would be based on my new reduced pay. So I turned it down for that reason.

Try reflexology, I had it when I was pregnant with #2 mainly for relaxation purposes but was soooo shocked when it got rid of my reflux and helped with pains.

No advice on the work situation, sorry wouldn’t want to give wrong info but wanted to share that reflexology really did help me

Equality Act 2010 covers protected characteristics and reasonable adjustment using the same terminology as for disabled people, so I’ve no idea why this poster spoke in such berating and entitled terms to the OP. MN is very strange sometimes.

She’s been pulled several times on this. Unkind, selfish and entitled - and totally factually incorrect. Right down to that last sentence. To qualify as disabled under the Equality Act, which is what this poster is referring to, you don’t need to have a permanent disability - it just has to be expected to last 12 months or more.

Pressed post by accident.

The NHS site uses the phrase ‘reasonable adjustments’ so it’s ridiculous to berate and mock OP for using the same phrase in a perfectly reasonable context.

Here is the specific section from the NHS site:

“Your rights at work while you're pregnant
If you're working while you're pregnant, you need to know your rights to antenatal care, maternity leave and benefits.
If you have any worries about your health while at work, talk to your doctor, midwife or occupational health nurse. You can also talk to your employer, union representative, or someone in the personnel department (HR) where you work.
Once you tell your employer that you're pregnant, they should do a risk assessment with you to see if your job poses any risks to you or your baby. If there are any risks, they have to make reasonable adjustments to remove them. This can include changing your working hours.”

@motheronthedancefloor

Please don't use the language of 'reasonable adjustments' because as I said that is legal terminology that only applies to disabled people.

Your whole post was needlessly unkind and snarky (including saying to a pregnant that no wonder someone laughed at them) but also incorrect.

The NHS site states:

Interestingly she’s got it wrong about disability too. At the end of her post she states that the OP’s problems are not ‘a permanent issue’. To be considered disabled under the Equality Act you don’t have to have a permanent disability, it just needs to be substantial (meaning substantially affecting day to day activities) and long term - expected to last 12 months or more.

The employer can’t act against medical advice so I think the easiest way to navigate this is to ask the GP to tailor the fit note to what OP needs. Something like ‘Unfit to work unless moving around is limited, x amount of breaks are provided, and suitable seating provided while working’ or something similar. If they then forced OP onto maternity leave rather than make the fairly simple adjustments she needs, they would have to justify why they weren’t possible from an operational point of view, and also why a formal risk assessment wasn’t carried out - especially important since OP’s pregnancy became problematic.

Oh dear - naughty employer. Very definitely maternity discrimination. They do need to make adjustments. Be aware though that I believe you can be forced to start maternity leave early if you get signed off sick

Regarding the suspending on full pay where the situation is risky, the school I was working at in spring 2020 did this for two teachers in late stage of pregnancy as the situation re Covid was uncertain and they weren't sure of their risks in the situation.

Good luck OP.

If you are suffering from pregnancy related pain/ complications, get yourself signed off until your mat leave would be triggered (start of fourth week before due date) with pregnancy related sickness. They are not allowed to record this as usual sickness/ cannot count towards any disciplinary rules around sickness. They have to pay you at least statutory sick pay (or more , if your contract is more) for this time.

Please also note, while on mat leave you accrue annual leave as if you were still working. This includes any bank holidays you would usually take and have not because you are on mat leave. Make sure you get this time off/ paid in lieu of you decide to give notice whilst on mat leave.

This is exactly what you need to do. Ask for a reply in writing or if they try to talk to you in person document what was said and send it to them. You need a paper trail if you intend to bring any sort of claim against them in future, but even if you don’t intend to do this having things in writing can often make them take you more seriously. A fit note would also help support your request but I wouldn’t delay if you have any issues getting one.

If they refuse any further help then raise a formal grievance with HR (Google/ACAS how to do this). Again this is required for a future claim.

If they still refuse your requests you may have no option but to go off sick and take maternity leave early as your health must come first. You can then decide whether to pursue a claim against the company and whether you want to return to working there.

Are you a union member? Is there anyone above your immediate boss? This situation sounds ridiculous to me and so unfair. Sorry to hear you're having no joy. Maybe confront your boss again and record the conversation, then if he promises stuff and doesn't deliver you can prove what's been said. I hope you enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and am so sorry you've got this stress.

You don’t happen to be the woman that came racing down the aisle in her mobility scooter who told me to get out of her fucking way when a. I was there first and b. I was trying to get a bottle from the top shelf of someone that couldn’t reach. You sound just like her. The Equalities Act covers pregnancy so you are wrong. Just because someone doesn’t have a permanent disability doesn’t mean they are not protected by law. So get that right!!! Oh and we are all laughing at you by the way.

They might be on paper but I'm really not sure what this actually looks like in real life.

Any employer who doesn't want to deal with a situation like this will just stop giving this person shifts.
The employee would have no way of proving that this is why the employer had done it. They could just say 'WE didn't have any hours for them'.

OP. Some great advice here. I would certainly use the contacts provided. I beg you to start a written trail of all this if you haven’t already: ASAP.
write to your crappy manager too and say : as advised I am formally writing to request X, y & z. I have previously made a verbal request for this and your reasons for not providing the adjustments are a,b & c.
i am requesting a written reply within 7 days to confirm this for my records should I need it if complications arise from PGP.
copy in uk HR, Main HR and your GP. Plus any other bloody contact that might make this loathsome idiot realise he is putting his job at risk. Then watch the stool appear pronto! X
i would throw in the word discrimination and illegal or by UK law in there. Nothing will make HR sit up faster x

Wow, I couldn’t even walk around the supermarket with this is was that painful and if I forgot something at the other side, I wasn’t going back for it. I honestly don’t know how you’re managing.

I’d fight for your rights as people have said.

It’s not fair to be forced into starting your leave early when it will then finish early. They have to make adjustments, I’m not sure if you’re fit to work but they can’t have a safe environment for you they’re meant to finish you early on full pay. Definitely check it all out.

If you have a read up on PGP there are a couple of things you can do to make sure you evenly distribute your weight to help minimise pain but to be honest, it’s only for getting out of bed or in and out of a car etc, the only thing that helps is having the baby.

Take lots of extra long toilet breaks until you get a better option so you can sit down?

Wearable beanbag? Only jk, but thought it might make you laugh

Zero hours contractors are covered by the Equality Act 2010. OP’s pregnancy is a protected characteristic. The employer is breaking the law by not doing a risk assessment and providing reasonable adjustment.

If an employee is pregnant, disabled or has other protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010, the length of time they have worked for the employer is irrelevant - these rights are protected from day one.