Do I have to take my antenatal appointments as annual leave?

[Anastasia1979]

I was under the impression that my work had to give me paid time for my midwife/scan appointments, but now my boss is arguing that I have to take annual leave to cover them, or make up the hours! (he argues that the annual leave is paid; therefore it's legit it to be used for my appointments).

I'm now confused and I'm not sure if I'm right, has anyone got any advice/experience on this? I'd be grateful for any input!

no you don't. They must allow you to take the time off.

Show him this

The basics of working while pregnant

Help with your maternity rights

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* Maternity rights and responsibilities tool Opens new window

Pregnant employees have four key rights:

* paid time off for antenatal care
* maternity leave
* maternity pay benefits
* protection against unfair treatment or dismissal

"All pregnant employees, however long they have been in their jobs, are entitled to reasonable time off work for antenatal care. Any time off must be paid at your normal rate of pay. It is unlawful for your employer to refuse to give you reasonable time off for antenatal care or to pay you at your normal rate of pay.

Your employer can ask for evidence of antenatal appointments from the second appointment onwards. If asked you should show your employer a medical certificate showing you're pregnant and an appointment card or some other written evidence of your appointment.

Antenatal care may include relaxation or parent craft classes as well as medical examinations, if these are recommended by your doctor. If you can, try to avoid taking time off work when you can reasonably arrange classes or examinations outside working hours."

On the basis of Duelling's last point, my employer (large, public sector) lets pg ladies go to the pg yoga class on a monday morning at a sports centre local to work!

DF has said it all :)

He could not be more wrong if he tried!

...I've nothing to add - the ladies above have said it all but I just wanted to add that he sounds like a right tosser!!!

antenatal appt is not AL there is abundance of case law on this. liaise with HR if you have one and if he persists do put him right

Pregnant employees have four key rights:

* paid time off for antenatal care
* maternity leave
* maternity pay benefits
* protection against unfair treatment or dismissal

All pregnant employees, however long they have been in their jobs, are entitled to reasonable time off work for antenatal care. Any time off must be paid at your normal rate of pay. It is unlawful for your employer to refuse to give you reasonable time off for antenatal care or to pay you at your normal rate of pay.

Your employer can ask for evidence of antenatal appointments from the second appointment onwards. If asked you should show your employer a medical certificate showing you're pregnant and an appointment card or some other written evidence of your appointment.

thanks ladies, good to hear your thoughts! I did think I was right, but staring doubting it after a while, but am getting all prepped for a meeting with him tomorrow.

BikeRunSki my employer is also a very large public sector one!

public sector-in that case hr.they will be versed with policies unlike your boss

Good luck for tomorrow, be stong and confident that you are well within your rights to take the time off

thanks for the support everyone!

I have just also just found this on the equalityhumanrights.com website. Couldn't be clearer and might help someone else too:

You can request evidence of the appointments, such as an appointment card. An employer can also request evidence of pregnancy from the employee in the form of a certificate from a registered doctor, midwife or health visitor. You cannot request evidence for the first appointment.

"You must pay the employee her normal rate of pay for time taken off work for antenatal care. This money is not reimbursed by HM Revenue and Customs.

The employee cannot be required to make up the time she has missed at some other time. She also cannot be compelled to take annual leave to cover the time off.

An employer must not unreasonably refuse to allow a pregnant employee the time off."

The certificate you need is the MATB1 form which you can get from your midwife. You don't get this immediately and you just need to hand it to your HR dept 15 weeks before your estimated Due date.

As others have said - no you don't! Cheeky buggars!

but can legitimately ask to see appt card

Is there a certain amount of hours you employer can give you time off for antenatal? My employer is taking my annual leave every time I go for a scan appointment etc.
What is classed as resonable time off paid??

Mummy your employer is acting illegally. Talk to your hr ASAP as you should not be having annual leave removed to go to appointments. There isn't an hours max but if yours are all routine and you're not taking the piss (for example taking a full day for a 30 min appointment) then that is recognised as 'reasonable'.

The law has also changed from 1st October to allow anyone in a. "Qualifying relationship" with a pregnant woman to attend reasonable antenatal appointments. They can't be forced to take holiday either.

Bunch of tossers. This is direct discrimination under the Equality Act and is highly illegal

The same way that any time off sick during pregnancy cannot be counted towards your normal sick leave entitlement as pregnancy is not classed as a sickness.

Sadly I've had 2 x mc this year and had 2 weeks sick leave for each so these 4 weeks can't count towards my sick leave entitlement of 6 months just in case some funny fucker decided to start pulling rank

I'm pregnant for a 3rd time now!

Totally agree with other posters, your boss is completely wrong and hr will/should set him straight. Just wanted to add that its defo worth sorting this out now so the precedent is set. I have been surprised at how many antenatal appts you have with afirst baby (not sure if it's your first too?) But you don't want to have to go through explaining the position for every appointment. be tough with them now and good luck.