Being asked to make time up for maternity appointments

[IToldYouIWasFreaky]

Asking on behalf of a colleague. She's fairly new to our company and a few months pregnant. She's been attending maternity appointments but our empolyer has told her that she's only entitled to time off for the actual appointment, not the time spent travelling to them. This time has to be made up so she's been coming in early and working late.
This isn't right, is it? I have done a brief bit of Googling and ACAS seems to suggest not.
I want to help my colleague if I can...our HR dept are rubbish and she seems reluctant to rock the boat as she's new and trying to make a good impression etc. I just want to check where she stands legally though

Sorry but that doesn’t seem right to me.
If your colleague has any sense she would leave the company. Squabbling over time taken to attend a maternity appointment? Company sound a nightmare!

That sounds bizarre. It doesn't sound right to me.

The company is wrong. Time off for maternity appointments includes travel time. Requiring your colleague to make up the time is clear discrimination. If this went to employment tribunal it would go very badly for the company.

From citizens advice:
You should get your usual pay on a day when you go to an appointment. Your employer can’t make you work extra hours to make up for the time you’re away

From ACAS:
Pregnant employees are entitled to reasonable paid time off for antenatal care, this includes travel time.

Thanks all.

I'm going to have a chat with my colleague today and offer to come with her to talk to our line manager if she'd like the support.

www.maternityaction.org.uk/advice-2/mums-dads-scenarios/pregnant/time-off-for-antenatal-care/

Gosh, your employer sounds awful :( you're very kind to help your colleague. I hope it all gets worked out.

For the additional overtime she has done, they should offer to either pay her extra or give her time off in lieu. Awful people.

I was asked to do this. I'm m a nurse, my manager was a midwife! She insisted it was required.

NHS for you.

If you need to refer to the law, the relevant legislation is the Employment Rights Act 1996 section 55. This states that an employee who is pregnant is entitled to " take time off during the employee’s working hours in order to enable her to keep the appointment." The wording about enabling her to keep the appointment is clear that it is not just the appointment itself that is covered. It also covers necessary travelling time.

Under section 57 of that Act, if the employer is not allowing time off (as is the case here) she can take them to an employment tribunal which will order them to pay her double the amount they should have paid her for the time off.

Thanks demented, that's a really helpful link.

Our employer is not a small one and really should be better at this stuff! I am hoping it's just a breakdown in communication somewhere and it'll just take someone (me!) to say "um, I don't think this is right, is it?" and it'll get resolved...

Is she taking the piss? I had a colleague who commuted an hour to work each day. When she was pregnant she'd always arrange an appointment for around 11am - not worth arriving for 9am, working an hour, then leaving again so she'd take the whole morning off. Then she'd have to have her lunch hour, and then it's not really worth coming in for the afternoon because she wouldn't be in until about 2.30, and finished at 4 anyway.

So she was spinning a quick appointment into a whole day off work. The key word is "reasonable" time off.

No, she wasn't taking the piss. She's a very conscientious person, which was part of the problem...she didn't feel she could object!

Anyway, without giving too much away, it's resolved. Colleague has gone home early today to make up for the extra hours she's worked and will not be working back travel time in the future.

Glad to hear it OP.

I am glad for your colleague