Whilst at times it seems as if our society is evolving at breakneck speed, there are also those moments when it feels as though the clocks have stopped, and we're stuck in a bygone era when starting a family spelled the end of paid work for women. It's 40 years since legislation was introduced protecting women from being fired the moment they announced their happy news to their employer, yet research and anecdotal evidence suggest that many women are still incredibly vulnerable in the workplace when pregnant or on maternity leave.
The TUC has recently carried out its own research, speaking to female union members about their experiences of pregnancy discrimination, and our findings have been pretty shocking. The first thing to say about pregnancy discrimination is that it comes in many ugly guises. Most people would recognise a woman losing her job because she was pregnant as discrimination but, as our report highlights, there are many other ways in which women are discriminated against in pregnancy, from being passed over for promotion to being exposed to hazardous chemicals or being made to lift heavy boxes without a risk assessment.
From our conversations with women about their experiences, we were able to identify some common themes: loss of job; bullying and unwelcome comments; paid time off for antenatal appointments refused; dangerous or hazardous work; promotion opportunities blocked; disciplinary action for pregnancy-related illness; redundancy; refusal to accommodate requests for family friendly hours; problems continuing breastfeeding at work; loss of pay and benefits.
On top of this, new figures from Maternity Action show us that cuts to pregnancy and child related benefits amount to a staggering £1.5bn– so women can ill afford to take a cut to their salaries or to be squeezed out of the workplace altogether.
Of course, statistics only tell part of the story. Women's voices are what bring our research to life and show the real impact of discrimination on people's lives. One woman told us that “I was handed my notice at 6 months pregnant. I had to fight redundancy hard with the aid of my union and I was eventually offered a job two grades lower than the one I was on, and for £10,000 less salary.”
Another woman told us she was “shouted at and sworn at for being in the toilet with morning sickness”. One woman was asked to make her midwife appointments on a Saturday. Another said she suffered from bullying and harassment and had to “plead to get time off for antenatal appointments”.
Last year, Mumsnet collaborated with the brilliant Everyday Sexism project to collate examples of pregnancy discrimination which had been posted on the #everydaysexism website. The same themes crop up as those identified in the TUC report and the testimonies from women are equally shocking, if not more so. One woman reported that “[I] was told by my boss to have an abortion or resign as my colleague was pregnant first and “two pregnant workers was unfair”.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Equal Opportunities Commission estimated back in 2004 that 30,000 women per year are forced out of their jobs because of pregnancy discrimination and there's no reason to believe that the picture has improved. The number of employment tribunal claims for unfair dismissal and suffering a detriment because of pregnancy rose by one fifth from 2008 to 2013, with more than 9,000 women taking their employer to tribunal. Yet we know that this represents just a tiny proportion of the total number of women who have experienced this type of discrimination – earlier research found that only three per cent of women who lost their jobs due to pregnancy discrimination made a complaint to tribunal. With the introduction of employment tribunal fees, the number of women taking action against employers who discriminate against them has dropped even further.
So what needs to be done to improve the situation? Getting employers to recognise and monitor the problem would be a good starting point. The TUC is calling on employers to publish information on how many women employees return to work after having children and, crucially, how many are still in post a year later.
Fathers must be part of the solution too. New research from the NCT finds that many fathers really want to spend more time at home with their children, yet the current statutory paternity pay is a paltry £138 per week - 40 per cent lower than the National Minimum Wage for a full time worker - which makes it unaffordable for many fathers to take the time off they'd like to when they have a new baby. Decent paternity pay and a dedicated period of “use it or lose it” paternity leave would go some way towards creating more shared parenting and would encourage employers to think about how they accommodate both men and women who need time out of the workplace when they become parents. Similarly, more flexible working for both men and women is crucial if we want to allow parents to hold on to their jobs and to balance work and family life more equitably.
Employers also need to learn lessons from pregnancy and maternity discrimination cases brought against them. Too often, poor practice becomes embedded. Tribunals should be given the power to make enforceable recommendations that an employer should change their practices following a finding of discrimination.
Crucially, we need to remove barriers to women enforcing their rights. Rights aren't worth a lot if they're not enforced. Abolishing employment tribunal fees would be a huge step in the right direction. While not all women will want to go through the stress of an employment tribunal when they're already going through the major upheaval of having a baby, some will, and fees are acting as a big (£1,200 to be precise) barrier to them accessing justice.
Employers need to drag themselves into the 21st century and start valuing mothers in the workplace – true equality is impossible until they do.