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

Contact your Occupational Health Dept for further support if they have one.

Wowwww. Usually I get frustrated by pregnant women being quite entitled in the workplace and thought this would be another one of those threads, but I apolpgise for expecting that, as this is SO out of order! What terrible employers. Absolutely get everything in writing and give ACAS a call. Go and see your GP too - you need all this recording officially.

My friend had crutches when she had severe pelvic pain in pregnancy, can you get hold of some to. a) help you while working and b) show how serious it is. You shouldn’t have to though, what you are asking sounds very much like reasonable adjustments, is there anyone who would be happy to accompany you to another chat with your manager to support you? It’s just human nature that there is strength in numbers.

@motheronthedancefloor

😮😮😮😮😮

Why did you take the time to provide such wrong advice??

And with such force, too "get that understood".

Jeez.

Hey @orangesss

Sorry you are going through this. Which country is your retailer based in? Just wondering if it's American where they have woeful practices re pregnancy/ maternity.

Retail in the UK is usually pretty good at adapting for pregnancy. I have worked at many grocery retailers where they all have comprehensive pregnancy adjustment policies particularly for store and depot staff.

Absolutely get down in writing what your manager has said and your understanding of it. Get in touch with your HR person start quoting the equality act. Go to 'pregnant then screwed' website which has great information

I agree- I also like to add in this...

Just to summarise the key points from our discussion today:

• Regarding breaks you have said...
• Regarding the stool you have said...

It can help to create a paper trail of a verbal discussion, I always keep it honest and unemotional, and the manager can always respond also.

This sounds completely awful, I hope the advice given so far is helpful.

Just wanted to add that the London School of Osteopathy offers cheap appointments with supervised students and massively improved this issue for me when I was pregnant. Other osteopathy schools may do the same.

This is what I might be inclined to do. See if anyone I know has a wheelchair and if so, ask to borrow it. Turn up at work in said wheelchair and say you are reporting for work. Tell them doctor has advise you need to be seated most of the time. Ask them where they are going to put you at work. Granted, this is probably not the best course of action, but it would be amusing to see what the manager says/does.

This is awful.

I had some problems with bleeding in pregnancy and my work were absolutely fantastic. Immediate written risk assessment as soon as I informed them, asking what I needed to be able to keep working. Rearranged my workspace so I didn't have to do any lifting. Assigned colleagues to help with the hardest/most physical tasks.

That's what it should look like!

You need to stick your neck out here. Make trouble. Demand things that are your right within the law. Turn up with your own stool and sit on it!!!! Get GP/midwife backup. Demand things in writing/by email so you have a paper trail. Get legal advice if necessary.

Thankfully, you couldn't be more wrong. Pregnant women are very much protected under the Equality Act and have very specific laws & policies relating to working during pregnancy that absolutely fall under reasonable adjustments.

Are you on a zero hours contract OP? I ask because if you were salaried you'd probably be due more than SSP for starters.

Also, if you are on a zero hours contract, then I suspect your manager just doesn't 'want the faff' of granting your reasonable adjustments when he could just, in theory, get someone else in and not give you (m)any shifts.

Keep notes of everything - this is discrimination and if there are problems further down the line then you have evidence!

Email him confirming your conversation exactly as you’ve put above. Put at start i am emailing to confirm my understanding of our conversation, then at end out if I have misunderstood anything please let me know without delay,

otherwise further down the line he’ll deny what he’s said and said you misunderstood, people also don’t like things in black and white as they can’t gaslight and say you misunderstood. It sometimes forces them to say you must of misunderstood as they didn’t mean that at all

I'd be fuming aswell. They should provide reasonable adjustments for you and it sounds like they are refusing. I would contact acas as others have said. If you can't go on the sick I suggest taking the breaks and sit downs anyway. What's the worst they can do ! Your boss sounds like a knob!

Following in from very helpful advice before, I strongly encourage you to contact the ACAS helpline as soon as you can, as they may offer to email/write to the UK HR business partner to s-p-e-l-l out your H&S & employment rights.

Tackle the low hanging fruit first.

Retail store with just a few branches in UK?

Based on this post, I'm going to guess that the HR is based somewhere in the EU so they are probably breaking EU legislation too.

Gather the information you need and then forward it to HR, Occupational Health & Safety and your manager and advise them that due to their lack of a formal H&S review at the start of this pregnancy, you're unable to continue working until the minimum requirements are met. You'll still show up (so they can't say that you're not available for working) but you won't be able to work - sit on a sofa in store until such time as your basic requirements are met.

That's what I would do.

Just to echo all the other excellent advice and resources @orangesss

An employer must also LEGALLY provide a pregnant woman with somewhere to rest, and lie down if necessary.

Am I entitled to more breaks while I'm pregnant?
Yes. You should agree this with your employer. The length and frequency of your breaks will depend on the hours and nature of the work you do.

www.qualitysolicitors.com/employment-law/working-whilst-pregnant/faq/am-i-entitled-to-more-breaks-while-im-pregnant#

I’m also wondering if it’s worth emailing your manager a link to a summary of the responsibilities employers have for pregnant employees.

Contact pregnant then screwed for advice, they were wonderful when I encountered discrimination while I was on maternity leave and offer free ongoing advice and support from a named solicitor. The fact that they haven’t done your maternity assessment goes against them and the things you’re asking for are a reasonable adjustment but that doesn’t help you right away. I’d also send a follow up email summarising the conversations you’ve had so far so you have evidence of these. I’d definitely ask about taking your own stool in too. Good luck with it.

Not conflating anything though. EA calls for risk assessment and reasonable adjustment, and applies to pregnancy as a protected characteristic in the same way as for disabled people. The employer is in clear breach of that as well as health and safety issues. It depends on which course of action will result in the quickest resolution. The EA states that employers can’t act against medical advice so a possible solution is for OP to visit her GP and tell them what’s happening, and what she needs, and have the doctor specify it on the fit note.

Please don’t flame me because this isn’t intended to be ableist - I’m disabled myself, but I suspect this poster is disabled. I was a disability outreach worker for a long time, and came across this mindset a lot. Some people claim reasonable adjustment as only applying to disability because that’s their only experience of it - the last sentence ‘Your problems are not a permanent issue’ gives it away IMO.

Do you have a union?
health and safety department?

You have so many rights, please look them up, send to your HR representative and say the company has not followed correct procedures by law, that you will raise a grievance if they don’t make reasonable requirements. Your manager sounds horrible and sorry you’re in this.
I returned from maternity a year ago. Before I went off I was being given more and more work (I manage a team) and ended signed off for 2 weeks as blood pressure through the roof due to work (was 115 normally but raised to 165) When I came back they ensured they didn’t overload me but this was instigated by HR. Go to your dr and get signed off but say it is due to work stress (don’t say pregnancy pain on sick note) as then you can’t be made to start maternity early.