Antenatal Appointments

[qwertyqw]

I have a pregnant employee who has random 'urgent' same day GP appointments which she says are related to her pregnancy. This will usually require her to take an entire afternoon off as it takes her quite a long time to get to and from the office.

When I ask for proof she'll send me a screenshot of text message reminders from the GP.

The texts are just reminders, they don't say what the appointment is for and if it's related to her pregnancy. As if it's not it would have to come out of her annual leave allowance. They also don't confirm that she actually turned up for her appointments and didn't just take the afternoon off.

AIBU to insist on proof that the appointments are related to her pregnancy and if she can't do that to automatically deduct the time from her annual leave?

I can’t give specific advice but you need to talk to your HR before doing anything

It's not so easy to get the proof you ask for. Why do you think her midwife, dr etc have the time to provide this for you? Do you have reason to doubt her?

since becoming pregnant, this employee has been rather difficult. She’s raised no less than 3 grievances in 6 months, none of which the company have upheld, and will do anything not to have to come to work. Most of her GP appointments are urgent ‘same day’ appointments and i get the feeling she books them literally to avoid work and most probably doesn’t even attend them.

This is clearly a much bigger problem than just the appointments. I think you need to discuss this with HR. How often are the appointments, and also are there any other performance or behaviour concerns?

the same day appointments have happened twice since shes been pregnant. I am part of the HR department, i just wondered if there is anyway to get proof than an appointment is pregnancy related, what's to say she didn't book the appointment for a non pregnancy related illness? or that she even turned up?

Just suck it up till she's on mat leave it isn't worth the hassle for anyone.

Just what I came on the say. You have no way of getting proof.

Wow I’ve never heard of an employer demanding proof that someone went to a real appointment they booked time off for. And you’re on shaky ground with someone who’s pregnant.

yes but the point is, she didn't book time off for it. She's entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments but only if their antenatal, shes not entitled to time off for other appointments it has to come out of her annual leave.

If they’re arranged on the same day, with the GP, they’re not antenatal appointments in the sense that they’re not the 28, 31, 34 week etc appointments - it sounds to me more like they’re normal appointments that happen to relate to pregnancy. So could be anything although if it’s GP more likely to be eg severe heartburn than something like reduced movements. However, I think it all falls under the protected bracket of antenatal care. Without a fit note being the outcome of the appointment, there is not really any “proof” but really, pick your battles - a battle with a pregnant woman over pregnancy related absence is a very bad idea from a HR perspective.

Pregnancy discrimination is usually a guilty untill proven innocent for the employer. She could have a high risk pregnancy but she has a right to privacy. Has the company fully complied with its legal requirements?

To date the company has "lost" 1 day salary. Even if she is on 100k thats less than £400. You would quickly run up that cost if it goes legal.

If your company don"t have inhouse experience in pregnancy and maternity it need to upskill HR staff.
And don't assume that because her complaints (if pregnancy related) were not upheld after an internal process that they would not be looked at as an ongoing pattern.

You would be better off focusing on making sure that you have multiple staff trained up to cover her role and that her manager has an up-to-date written process for any daily or non-daily activity and password access to any external or internal computer systems.