To think this is probably illegal, asking a pregnant woman to swap days off, so she attend midwife visits on her day off

[RedCherryPie]

This has happened to a good a friend of mine and I am livid

She is having a v difficult pregnancy

Her workplace have said to her lets swap you day off from thu to the as that's when you have all your midwife appointments

Surely they are not allowed to say that

She doesn't want to swap as she's struggling to keep going with work and needs her day off to actually have a break not spend the most of it going to and from and hanging around for appointments

I am fuming
Do you think this is actually illegal asking her to do this

No, unless it's to do with her work risk assessment, they shouldn't be asking. They are on very shaky ground here.

By law she is allowed time off to attend medical allotments relating to her pregnancy.

My place of work is mon-fri. There are two pregnant women in my dept. They're not being asked to work the weekend to make up for time they've spent in the working day going to midwife check.

Yanbu

Yes she has the right to attend apps but I do think her employer's request sounds reasonable.
I have one weekday off a week, I always make sure I book all appts, DD ' s appts, car mot, deliveries etc for this day so as to avoid the need to ask for time off.

Although she can go on maternity leave from week 24, I believe.

It's not reasonable to request it, at all. She has the right to paid time off for maternity appointments.

My employer is nice and I did my best to book my appointments at the beginning or end of the day to make life easier for them, but they never asked me to, and I was under no obligation to.

Well in the normal scheme of things I don't think it's an unreasonable request. I worked part time through my second pregnancy and made every effort to ensure any appointments happened on the days I didn't work.
A little bit of give and take is always good and can build up some good will for when you really need it.
I'm not sure that they can insist on it tho. They don't sound like they've handled it very well.

I think that at that stage she's probably having appointments every 4-6 weeks - and so on that basis I don't think her employer is being unreasonable to ask.

I've just text her to ask how often does going to appointments, and told her I'm getting advice on here, shes going to come on and see this thread

And she replied that she's not even been seeing the midwife often and that it's only when the midwife has said oh your such and such is not right, urine or be etc, let's check it again next week or in a fortnight that's the only reason she's had the odd extra appointment all the rest have been the basic essential medical routine appointments

Other than ones where she's been asked to return to repeat tests etc

Not her fault

Oh are you sure she can leave at 24 weeks she thinks 29 weeks is the earliest she can go

If you post this in the Employment section then you'll get a lot more accurate advice (especially if Flowery is around). AIBU gives lots of answers, but not necessarily the right answers :)

And I'm pretty sure it's 29 weeks (but not an expert!)

So could she ask to see the midwife first thing in the morning/last thing in the afternoon of one of her working days? Or just hand in a sample and phone for the results? Any other ways that she can work round the appointments?

No, you're right... I was getting it mixed up with the fact that if you have a still birth after 24 weeks, you can still get statutory mat leave. Sery for the misinformation!

Actually, they can legally request that she works slightly different shifts. I am on the fence. I have a chronic health condition and when I worked part-time, I adjusted my days to reflect my appts.

I work part time and try to get my appointments on days off, but when I had an appointment on a tricky work day that'd I explained I couldn't move it we moved some wrk stuff round so I could go, there was no question of moving my days.

She needs to keep a diary of that kind of behaviour and has every ith to refuse.

My best advice is to get sighed off for the next few weeks bollocks to them

Sounds like its time for your friends midwife to advise pregnancy yoga,parenting classes, huffy puffy classes and anything else pregnancy and birth related things we can think of

Not sure that's the best advice - I could be wrong, but can't that affect her SMP, mat leave etc? Here's a link to a factsheet from Maternity Action which explains more www.maternityaction.org.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/sicknessduringpregnancymaternityleave.pdf

I think they are being reasonable to ask this. I always arranged mine for the latest appointment so I didn't miss much time. A colleague on the other hand would take hours off on her working days despite working part time. She even arranged her parent craft classes on her working days deliberately.

Get her to contact maternity action for advice: www.maternityaction.org.uk/wp/

X-post with SirChenjin

When I was pg and working part-time, I was caring for older dc on the days not at work. I could not have taken him to appointments, heart rate monitoring etc which takes hours. No-one ever suggested I change days nor would I have.

.. I probably worked extra though as I was thankful to have a good employer.

I was pregnant this time last year an also got treated like absolute shite by my boss.

Worked in a busy kitchen and he asked me to lift a sack of potatoes (25kg) into the kitchen at 8 months pregnant and that's not the worst of it!!

I'm sure that by law you're allowed time off during pregnancy or midwives appointments etc. especially if she's having a difficult time. Her boss should also have done a risk assessment! If not she could probably send him/her to the cleaners!!

I put up with being treated like shite during my pregnancy and wish I had put the safety of my little girl at risk and would urge anyone else to stand up for themselves in this situation

She has the right to take reasonable time off for maternity appointments without loss of pay.

It's one thing to change your days and organise your appointments outside of work time because you choose to, and another thing entirely for an employer to move someone's days so that they don't have to pay an employee her legal entitlements.

I think they're being pretty reasonable tbh. I worked for a small company when I was PG and always planned my appointments around days off or swapped shifts with people. I also took my maternity leave as early as I could (and used up my annual leave before that started as well) because I had a twisted pelvis & high BP so work became impossible.

Just because it's a legal entitlement doesn't mean the employer should suffer when there is a compromise that fits everyone. If your friend is struggling that badly then she should just get signed off until 29 weeks and then start her maternity leave l.