Provisional job offer & pregnant

[RedZeppelin]

Four weeks ago I was given a provisional job offer for a brilliant job, subject to final interview. We negotiated and agreed on package and the final interview was to take place abroad on a date to be agreed.
The day before the trip I met with my potential new boss and let him know, out of courtesy, that I was 3 months pregnant. He reacted well but did indicate that the timing was inconvenient.

So, the interview went well, however, on my return the boss told me that they now had other candidates in the process. There had been no mention of this when the offer was made.

Does this smell as fishy to you as it does to me? Where do I stand if they decide to withdraw the offer?

You could have done what I did when hired at 5 months pregnant and having told them - just take two weeks off to have the baby in! It works a treat.

I had a confirmed job offer, told them out of courtesy that since interviewing I had found out I was pregnant. They withdrew the offer due to the pregnancy (their words). Nothing I could do about it. Threaten them with legal action to give me a job? Not really feasible.

Unusual to be given an offer subject to a further interview. Do you have that offer in writing? Clearly conditional offers are more commonly made after the selection process has been completed, and the conditions are usually things like satisfactory references, that type of thing. Could they argue that no conditional offer was in fact made?

They are not allowed to discriminate, obviously, so if they withdraw their conditional offer and you think it was your pregnancy rather than you performance at interview that was the reason, you could consider bringing a claim.

Yes, I have it in writing. We've had a full and frank discussion and agreed on salary and package.

Currently I'm contracting but between jobs. Everything's on hold pending this decision but he longer they leave it, the less likely I'll be able to find alternative employment (baby I'd due in Jan so I can't commit to anything beyond Christmas).

Does anyone have any experience of winning compensation for this type of discrimination? How easy is it to prove that they've contravened the 2010 Equality Act? What are the likely costs of pursuing a claim?

Any thoughts or advice gratefully received.

Haha - not sure I believe you DaisyRed

I have worked bl**dy hard to get where I am and have told them that I don't intend on taking much time off - this will be my third child so I'm not going into this blind. I also have a very supportive other half who is more than willing to take extended leave to cover.
I'm pretty sure I'll want more that two weeks though, as a minimum I want the stitches to have healed!!

Yes, but I had just about no maternity rights so took 2 weeks of annual leave. It worked fine. I expressed milk at work for 6 months. I think when I was hired at 5 months pregnant as I had 2 children under 4 and a good nanny I could say look these childcare arrangements work and with the firs 2 chidlren there isd a proeen record I take 2 weeks off and go back so of course my pregnancy did not affect my career. Roll on all these years and I benefit from those decisions every day. The long maternity leave is a very poisoned chalice.