Being forced to take annual leave for antenatal appointments

[MOGMOGMOG85]

Hi

Does anyone know if there is any law or case law to back me in pushing back against my employer who is trying to make me take annual leave for my antenatal appointments?

Thank you in advance!

You shouldn't need to take leave: maternityaction.org.uk/advice/time-off-for-antenatal-care/

Employers must give pregnantemployeestime off forantenatal careand pay their normal rate for this time off. The father or pregnant woman's partner has the right to unpaid time offworkto go to 2antenatal appointments.

www.gov.uk › working-whe...

Pregnant employees' rights - GOV.UK

Sorry, the copy & paste removed some spaces, but this is from the Gov UK website.

Yeah that’s illegal if you’re in the UK. Try Acas

Are they making you use annual leave for the entirety of the appointment.

Or are they asking you to work around the appointment or use leave, eg appt is at 1pm, so they want you to work till 12, then again 3-5?

It would help if you confirmed which country you live in as the law varies depending where you live.

Hi all,

Thanks so much for this. @CoffeeBeansGalore @Peeeas and @ComDummings I can't find anything specific to this on gov.uk, acas or maternity action. The only things I have found which specifically mention annual leave are these pages without references yourjobrights.co.uk/your-family-rights/maternity-leave/antenatal-leave/

www.mumsnet.com/jobs/maternity-leave/paid-leave-for-antenatal-care

I particularly trust the mums net one but I can't find ANYTHING on gov.uk citizens advice acas maternity action etc etc. I'm guessing it comes from case law but lord knows which!

To clarify I am in the UK and yes they are making me take my whole antenatal appointments as annual leave. They let other people have paid leave (not annual leave) for doctors appointments so I feel I am being unfairly targeted as a pregnant woman, but that's a separate issue - I just want to find one good solid source in law or case law to just nail them on this and make them repent. I feel very very strongly that pregnant womens rights must not be eroded and I realise I am sticking my neck out to challenge them on this but I've got the fire in me now (blame the hormones) haha!

www.gov.uk/working-when-pregnant-your-rights

If you search "time off for antenatal appointments" on google the top 3 links are Acas, Maternity Action and Gov.UK. All state you're entitled to paid time off if you're employed. If you work for an agency there are different requirements - eg you need to have worked with them for 12 weeks.

Sorry, not sure if I can link from the mumsnet app!!

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/parental-rights/rights-while-youre-pregnant-at-work/

From above government link:

Pregnant employees have 4 main legal rights:

• paid time off for antenatal care
• maternity leave
• maternity pay or maternity allowance

' protection against unfair treatment, discrimination or dismissal

‘Antenatal care’ is not just medical appointments - it can also include antenatal or parenting classes if they’ve been recommended by a doctor or midwife.

Employers cannot change a pregnant employee’s contract terms and conditions without agreement - if they do they are in breach of contract.

Employers must give pregnant employees time off for antenatal care and pay their normal rate for this time off. The father or pregnant woman’s partner has the right to unpaid time off work to go to 2 antenatal appointments.

Here OP. From the link that someone provided for you above.

Hi OP, here's the actual law, not a link or explanation on a website: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/56

Section 55 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 explains the right to take the time off. The section I just linked to sets out that it's to be paid at your normal rate.

Hi @Level75 @NoParticularPattern @dementedpixie @ComDummings @RunnerGirl123 thank you for your replies but annual leave IS paid time off so I'm looking for anything specific regarding that you can't be compelled to take annual leave. All I have found so far are the 2 links I posted above which specifically say you cannot be forced to take annual leave for antenatal appointments but I don't have any sources for this, any legislation, any case law, so I don't feel I'm on firm ground.

If you weren’t pregnant you wouldn’t have to take your annual leave to attend appointments.. so therefore in my opinion you’re being treated differently (as you stated people who need to attend other medical appointments don’t have to use annual leave). Which could be argued as being unfair and therefore discrimination. Does your employer have a specific policy you can view in regards to maternity as that would state the policy on antenatal appointments. Also anyone pregnant or not has a legal right to a certain amount of statutory annual leave which shouldn’t be used for appointments etc as the purpose of leave is to give you rest away from work and legally an employer cannot force this leave to be taken in the case of sickness or appointments for example. Sorry I don’t have links for you but that’s what I know from my experience working in HR. I’d say if you speak to someone from HR, ask to see the company policy and possibly speak to your union if you have one then it’ll help clear things up for you. If you wanted the whole day off it would likely need to be annual leave but if it’s only the time at the appointment plus travel time then it wouldn’t need to be I think.

You cannot be disadvantaged by being pregnant and being forced to use annual leave for medical appointments is a disadvantage and thus pregnancy discrimination.

Phone acas on Monday to get the details and talk through you're specific circumstances.

In that case you might be better posting in employment issues or legal if you’re after law or case law specifics.

Yes! A wonderful woman on another thread managed to squirrel out direct information on this on the ACAS website (which I feel is a authoritative enough source for me to use in challenging this at work), link below:

archive.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5271 there is a factsheet on here "Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination: top 10 myths" and Number 2 is:

"Myth: Pregnant workers have to take leave for ante natal appointments.
Fact: Pregnant workers (and their partners) are entitled to take time off for ante natal appointments. This shouldn’t come out of their holidays."

Hopefully this may be helpful for anyone else coming behind me searching for info on this topic!

Ah I'm so relieved, job done - thanks for everyone for trying to help out I very much appreciate it! xx

Hi @MOGMOGMOG85 you say you don't have any legislation or sources but I've provided a link to the specific legislation on this very issue - did you not read it? S55 ERA 1996 says that you can take time off for antenatal appointments and S66 specifies that this is at your normal rate of pay. This is entirely separate from the right to take annual leave which is set out in 13 and 13A of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

If you your boss refuses to pay, the claim would be brought under section 57: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/57

By all means provide a link to an Acas publication on the issue, but you said you wanted the actual legislation and Acas isn't the law or case law. I appreciate it's a bit simpler to understand though.

It's worth noting OP that not only are you entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointment, you are also allowed reasonable paid time off for travel to and from the appointment also (This came up with my employer when I was pregnant as I lived / was registered at the Dr's surgery a 40 minute bus ride from my workplace and bus's came only once an hour)

maternityaction.org.uk/advice/time-off-for-antenatal-care/#:~:text=Can%20I%20take%20paid%20time,GP%2C%20without%20loss%20of%20pay.

I think it's more that the legislation doesn't specifically say that you cant be forced to use annual leave for antenatal appointments.

@dementedpixie thats exactly it - my employer was taking "the right to paid time off" as annual leave which is also paid time off. @Level75 I was looking for something fairly authoritative which states that exactly, I said case law because I was beginning to think there was nothing explicit on the government of ACAS websites but now I've found something that is fine - don't want to be unnecessarily heavy handed and hopefully they will respond to this!

Thank you @Chwaraeteg don't worry I'm fully aware of my rights and the parts about reasonable travel time etc are quite clear and easy to find - I was just struggling to locate something specifically mentioning annual leave! Thank goodness for mums net and women helping each other out - it's so important that employers respect these rights! :)

The legislation would never say anything about annual leave as it's a totally separate unrelated type of leave - that's what OP (or really OP's boss) needs to understand.
As someone else has pointed out, if she's already been made to take AL that's pregnancy discrimination as well as being a breach of the ERA provisions.
If she has no luck with her boss, she should call Acas to start pre claim conciliation. Even if you're not going to sue Acas would get involved and set the boss right directly.