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

With my first pregnancy I was working full time (40 hours week) and was told I could have time off for maternity related appointments but I must make up the hours at the end of the day or start early. I know this was illegal but I had nobody to complain to (small business) and complied because they would have made my working like a nightmare.

I'm now working somewhere else part time and have ensured that all appointments are on my day off. It's just easier for everyone.

I personally feel if there is an option to not have maternity appointments interfere with work then it's beneficial to everyone involved. It would be a nightmare for me to keep up with my work if I was taking unnecessary time off.

Tell me where it says that on here?

If my member of staff who had her day off on Fridays comes to me and says, my midwife only works Tuesdays and I'll need to go in work time, then I have to let her go. She has a right to paid time off.

If I'm going to be officious about it, I can ask for confirmation from her GPs that the midwife is not available on Fridays, just to make sure she's not taking the piss. If it was a call centre of 50, I might well do, but in an office of 5 then there's a certain amount of mutual respect and goodwill that would be lost if I did that.

Depending on her role, I might also ask if she preferred to move her day off to a Tuesday so she was not pushed to get her work done, but it would be at her discretion and not mine, and if it didn't suit her, she would not be obliged to move it. As a manager, it'd be bloody marvellous if I could make her move it, but it's against the law.

Washing - legislation will always override your employment contracts so it matters not a jot what their contract says or what you do. If their antenatal appointment is scheduled for when they are due to work, then they are entitled to time off for this.

As an employment law specialist working in one of Britain's largest employers, I'd say you are very lucky you haven't been taken to tribunal or had a grievance raised yet.

That question was directed to Mary btw.
That's awful Salty Small companies can make things a lot harder if you don't have anyone to take things further to. My company is HUGE so all the policies and guidance are very firmly fixed, and that really does offer the right protection for staff.
You're right though, if you're in a job where you have an amount of work to do in a set time, then taking 3hrs out to get to a midwife and back might affect you more than your employer!

You can of course, be asked to move it and in the event you agree, it's perfectly legal.

However they can't make you and they can't ask you to work the time back as that is not 'paid time off'.

I don't remember getting any choice in when my ante-natal appts were.

I am also sure it is illegal to alter someone's contracted hours / days of employment to get out of meeting a statutory obligation to allow women time out of work to attend ante-natal appts.

Further I do think it is unreasonable of the company to do so - my employer would not have asked me to make up the hours I missed on a saturday, which amounts to the same thing.

It's very hypothetical to talk of having the full range of days and times available for midwife appointments. Mine had one clinic, one afternoon a week, that was it. Within that I could try to arrange convenient times, but not much leeway. I also had further consultant appointments, and had no say in when they happened at all. Not to mention the oh-shit-I-feel-something's-wrong ones!
If it is seen as ok to ask a pt person to swap days, what if they work another job on those days, is it ok to ask them to always miss job b rather than job a?

Almost a decade ago now I was still on the Depo shot. It had to be done once every twelve weeks.
I couldn't have booked it for my day off because its due when its due and my employer kept changing my day off with less than 24 hours notice.
I once had to book it for a workday and on that morning someone else didn't come in so the manager said to me.... Oh you wont be able to go to todays appointment after all. We are now too short staffed (this late minute prevention by employers to attend appointments is also something to bear in mind now there is talk of charging for appointments) The best bit? there were already two shop assistants off on maternity leave. The manager obvs wanted there to be a third. oh and I live in a small town No FP clinic.

If you have a fixed contract stating your hours of work and your midwife is only available on one of these days then you have a legal right to paid time off to attend.

If a manager wants to change your contract then they have to consult. They will need a very good business reason to change your day off. Anything else and they are being unreasonable and employment law protects you from this.

There are a number of problems though:
Employers who dont know or understand the law or who are prepared to flout it (see washings posts for example)

Workers who dont know their rights, or feel they cannot enforce those rights for fear that they would lose their jobs.

I suspect both of these things happen a lot.

I really don't think it's unreasonable
I work in a job where we work 5 days out of 7. I sometimes have one day off in the week, sometimes two.
I fully expect to have to do my antenatal appointments on my days off because that's the benefit of having days off in the week.
It's a bit silly to insist on taking it in work time when you don't have to!

I'd like to point out that I am pregnant and my days off will be based around my mw appointments for the benefit of my work, I don't want them to be at a disadvantage and short staffed just because I'm pregnant. I work for them so they deserve my focus and full hours of work in my opinion.

Washing, it also sounds to me that you've been vv lucky not have been taken to a tribunal

I am quite surprised at some of the responses on this thread. Although I do if at all possible arrange medical appointments for a non-working day I would be outraged if I was told to change my working days to fit in with appointment. I might have something else to do on my "day off" e.g. another job or childcare. What happens if someone works Monday to Wednesday for one company and Thursday and Friday for another?

Washing, she is not going every week.

I work P/T at the minute, I cannot change my working days as I cantt change DS's nursery days. My midwife does one clinic, once a week. This notion of womebt choosing when they go see the midwife (and it's just not very often in a normal person healthy pregnancy anyway) is very abstract for me.

In working 5 days, one of which is a Saturday, by her day being changed she is effectively losing her weekend. The company cannot dictate to her what she does on her day off. In my second pregnancy I was working 4 days a week and while I did my best to get appointments on my day off, it just is not possible to dictate to the NHS when they will see you! It was a high risk pregnancy so I had a lot of appointments and no-one ever complained or tried to make me feel guilty.

She works full timw!

Hoewever in other circs I can see the other pointbof view. If she eg worked 2 days per week

Someone mentioned they have to let disabled people go to appointments and pay them. Sadly this isn't true. They have to allow them the time off, but they don't have to pay.

When I was working I had appointments all the time. The vast majority I fit into my days off (the days I needed to be resting) but I still had appointments on work days - usually hospital, ones at my specialist hospital in London, or clinics only on certain days.

At every company I had the option of making the time up - which I couldn't as I was at the maximum hours I could physically work, or take annual leave. 99% of my annual leave was either taken for appointments or recovering from them (I didn't have that many annual leave days, being part time anyway).

ChronicChronicles - I'm not that your employers were conforming to "equality discrimination act" if you ended up with no annual leave because of medical appointments. They are supposed to make "reasonable adjustments" so that you're not at a disadvantage when doing your job and I would say that you are at a disadvantage if you're never able to have a holiday. I suppose it depends on the size of the company, whether other employees get paid sick leave etc etc.