Do recruitment agencies take on pregnant women?

[MrsG123]

I have recently found out that I am pregnant and am thinking of leaving my job (because I really dislike it) and doing some temping.

Does anybody know if recruitment agencies will take on a pregnant woman to do some temporary work? I didn't know if clients would be a bit funny about having a pregnant temp?

I found a job when I was pregnant with baby no.3 and had 2 other children under 4. I just disclosed it to everyone. I could show I'd just taken 2 weks off with the other babies and I think they wanted to hire me. In a sense it's less risky than someone who has never had a child before and doesn't have child care in place etc.

I temped when pregnant and never found it a problem - mainly because I was on short-term contracts (eg one or two weeks).

you'll lose your maternity pay i think-

I have 2 pregnant temps working for me atm and would def take on a preg temp if they had the right skills. I've just invited one of them to apply for a perm role too, being pregnant shouldn't preclude one from making a living imo.

Our agency will happily take on pregnant women to do temporary work. Would you be looking for another permanent job while you were temping?

Quootie is right though, it could well affect your maternity pay; have a look at ACAS web site first before doing anything!

I work for a recruitment agency and I would say no problem, What all agencies need are flexible worker. The HOT candidate are those who are flexible, will do pretty much anything (office based, not factory in our case) have a car, and are genuiely nice.

What we have a lot of are time wasters, lazy, oooh 5 miles is too far type people. Also ones who bomb out on Monday mornings as they cannot be bothered!!

Therefore if you are happyto be felxible, work at whatever etc etc.

Also you have certain rights, however I am unsure what so do check that out

Thanks for all your responses!

To be honest I'm not too bothered about not getting maternity pay and I'm not really looking for another permenant job. I just want a few months of temping to earn a bit of extra cash so if I can do that it would be great.

I second everything Crunchie says; our best temps are those that either drive or are prepared to be flexible with public transport, who are happy to keep their options open with the type of office work they do, and who turn up on time and don't drop out at the last minute!

Also, if you're not looking for a perm job straight away, you're the perfect temp. You won't be taking lots of time off for interviews or leaving when a perm job comes along.

(Although remember, you can still go for perm jobs of course).

You don't live in Merseyside do you??? We always need good temps...

I've employed a pg temp from an Agency, ideal situation, she only wanted a few months work, we only had a few months work available.