Declaring ante-natal appointments - any employment law or HR experts out there?

[PlinkertyPlonk]

I'm pregnant so am entitled to time off for ante-natal appointments. However I'm fortunate to work very flexible hours and location (agreed verbally with my boss but common practice across the company), so I have not bothered to officially notify my boss of any appointments to date.

Thinking I ought to do it by the book, I've just tried to book time-off for an antenatal appointment (as required by company policy) and found I can only record half-days of leave. The reality is that I wouldn't be available for 2 hours at most, but would probably end up working the hours anyway (impossible to track because we don't record hours and my hours vary with workload).

I've decided not to officially book ante-natal appointments because it looks like I'm taking a whole morning off, when in fact I would be working most of those hours.

So my question is... does this put me at a disadvantage, from a legal perspective, should there be any issues further down the line (disagreements over pay increases, job opportunities etc).

Yes, I know, unlikely to happen, but would like to understand the potential pitfalls.

I'm a little confused with your use of the words "book" and "leave"

Ante natal classes aren't classed as leave - it is time off to attend appointments. Are you talking about an it based method of "booking" eg timesheets?

Have you talked to your line manager? I simply informed the company of when the appointments were and logged the actual time taken on my timesheets as "antenatal appointment".

We don't do timesheets, but I need to 'request' (ie book) the time off in the company's 'leave' tool (used for recording holiday, sick leave, maternity leave plus antenatal appointments).

I think I'm fretting over nothing, but want to make sure I'm not committing a huge clanger for which I'll kick myself later. It's all about perception - yes I'm entitled to time off, but I don't want it looking like I've only worked 3.5 days (I've 3 appointments next week) when I've actually worked 45+ hours! So the option is book appointments in the tool (I could put a note against them I guess) or continue just letting my boss know when necessary without bothering with the tool.

Guess I'm twitchy because I've been through too many redundancy rounds where a once 'easy-going' company suddenly starts playing by the rule book.

I think you're fretting over nothing too

I would addthat I'm 38 weeks pregnant and I did a fair bit of fretting over similar stuff early on - it's only natural - you are going through a big change in life!

The rule book is that you are perfectly entitled to this time off and to hold it against you would be discriminatory.

If they know you are pg then ask your line manager which s/he would prefer. Depending on your Appts you might need to build in some waiting time as well.