MNHQ here: post your pregnancy & maternity work questions here for FREE legal advice from Maternity Action

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Free online advice clinic 22nd July 2024 - 25th July 2024 - OPEN NOW.

Mumsnet and Maternity Action are once again teaming up to provide an online legal clinic, offering free advice on pregnancy, maternity and parental rights at work from volunteer employment lawyers who are members of the Employment Law Association.

Whether you have a question about maternity leave, your request for flex work, your rights as a pregnant worker, or think you may be discriminated against by your employer because of being a parent, this is the place for you.

The clinic takes the form of a Q&A on this thread and will run from Monday 22nd to Thursday 25th of July. The Maternity Action team will do their best to provide all answers during that time and at the latest by Friday. More information on where to go for more help once the clinic has ended is here. All past clinics are here.

How it works:

• If you have a question about your rights at work during pregnancy, maternity or parental leave, post it here below before the 25th of July. Please give as much information as possible but remember that this is an online forum and can be viewed by the public – including your colleagues and employer. Please don’t name your employer publicly if you are likely to be taking action against them in future. You can use private message to disclose information to the volunteers that you’d rather not make public.

• Please send your name and the name of your employer by private message to @MaternityActionfreeadvice so that it can be passed on to the volunteers to do a conflict of interest check. We cannot post a reply until you have sent this information by private message.

• Once your advice has been posted online, you will have an opportunity to provide feedback. This helps us to find out whether you found the advice helpful, whether it helped you to resolve your situation at work and some information about you. All survey responses are anonymous and confidential. Providing feedback will help us to see what improvements can be made in developing this type of online free legal advice clinic. Fill out the survey here.

Ts and Cs – please read
The advice provided to an individual poster is based only on the information provided by that poster. Advice on this thread is also particular to the individual who has asked for it and is likely to be specific to that person’s situation. A poster may have provided further relevant information by private message which will not appear on this thread. So please take care if you choose to apply that advice to your own situation - it is recommended that you first take legal advice from one of the sources we have suggested here.

Mumsnet, Maternity Action and Maternity Action's volunteers accept no liability for any loss suffered as a result of an individual choosing to follow advice provided to another poster's question on the thread.

The lawyers, all of whom are specialists in employment law, will be working as volunteers for Maternity Action in respect of the clinic. Any personal information collected as a result of the clinic will be held by Maternity Action and will be deleted after 18 months. If you wish to make a complaint about the service you received, you can click here: maternityaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Complaints-Policy-Final-2023.pdf

Dear RedditFinder

Thank you for your query and congratulations on your pregnancy. It is up to you when you wish to tell your employer and, as you say, your only legal obligation is to tell your employer by the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth (EWC) (or as soon as possible afterwards). In order to weigh up the pros and cons as to whether to tell your employer earlier you may want to consider the following:

1. At present any sick leave will be recorded as part of your normal sickness absence. If you self-certify or have any fit notes that state that your sick leave is pregnancy-related is must be recorded separately and cannot be used against you for disciplinary or redundancy purposes. If you don't want to notify your pregnancy in the early weeks you could take some annual leave to cover periods of pregnancy-sickness and tiredness.

1. You are entitled to health and safety protection and reasonable paid time off for your antenatal appointments during pregnancy, however, you will obviously need to make your employer aware of your pregnancy in order to benefit from this. In order to ask for health and safety protection you must notify your employer of your pregnancy in writing.

1. You are protected against pregnancy discrimination once you have informed your employer of your pregnancy. If you tell colleagues or managers in person it is a good idea to follow it up in writing and copy in HR so that you have a record of when your employer was notified. It is important to consider whether your employer might guess as it may be difficult to evidence that any unfair treatment is pregnancy-related prior to you notifying them. If you think you will be treated unfairly and have work taken off you, I suggest keeping a good record of events and discussions with your manager in case you need to evidence any change in treatment.

The earliest you can start your maternity leave is 11 weeks before your EWC. It is up to you to decide when you wish to start your leave. If you give birth earlier it will automatically trigger your maternity leave and pay from the day after the birth and you should notify your employer that you have given birth as soon as possible. You can work up to the birth if you wish but if you are absent because of pregnancy in the 4 weeks before your EWC your employer can start your maternity leave/pay immediately.

You should check your organisation's maternity policy for information on what maternity pay they offer and how to give notice for leave/pay.

I hope that everything goes well. If you experience unfair treatment, I suggest trying to resolve it informally wherever possible. You could also ask for a meeting with HR or for someone to be present at any meetings with your manager. You can raise a more formal complaint using your employer's grievance procedure but I would only recommend as a last resort or if you are considering taking legal action.

Dear NEdwards94

I am sorry to hear that your employer has gone back on the arrangement you had in place on your return to work.

An employer can refuse or cancel holiday if it has good business reasons to do so by serving the same amount of notice as the length of the proposed holiday. In your case this would only be a day and so your employer has clearly complied with this aspect given that you are not due to return until October. However, I suggest writing to your employer (if you have not already done so) to say that you are unable to work those days as your holiday is more than just proposed time off and is an arrangement linked to your return from maternity leave and childcare needs until March 2025.

You have a couple of options on how to tackle this:

(1) Initially I would continue to try and resolve the situation amicably and hopefully restore the original arrangement.

(2) As a last resort you could raise a formal written grievance in which you put the points you make here to your employer and highlight the detriment to you of finding childcare at such short notice. It is arguable that their decision to go back on the arrangement constitutes indirect sex discrimination as you have been disadvantaged by a requirement to work full time and need to work 4 days a week because of your childcare responsibilities. Tribunals can take 'judicial notice' that more women than men have childcare responsibilities.

(3) You could make a flexible work request in which you formally ask for 4 days per week. Your employer will then need to follow the flexible working procedure and again, if it cannot establish that it had good business reasons for refusing to allow you to work 4 days per week then their refusal to allow this may also be indirect sex discrimination. A flexible work request will usually result in a permanent change to your contract but you can ask for a temporary change. Please also note, you will only be paid for 4 days per week, but you would retain your holiday which you could use as you wish.

I hope you are able to resolve it soon.

Dear Jojod12
Thank you for your query and I'm sorry to hear about the tough time you'd had recently. All employers (no matter how small) have an obligation to protect the health and safety of their employees. In order to ask for a risk assessment and reasonable adjustments during pregnancy you need to tell your manager about your pregnancy in writing. I suggest an informal email asking for a meeting to explore the staffing issues and your health and safety concerns. Lone working is a recognised risk, especially in the later stages of pregnancy, so this is important to flag to your employer.

It may be helpful to show your employer this guidance on risk assessments from HSE: https://www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/

It can also be helpful to get a letter from your midwife or GP setting out any risks they are concerned about. This can help to prompt employers to take action.

I'm not sure how many weeks pregnant you are, but you will need to give notice to your employer by the 15th week before your expected week of childbirth (or as soon as possible afterwards if you are late) stating the date you want to start your maternity leave. You must give your employer your MATB1 maternity certificate for claiming Statutory Maternity Pay. You should also book in any annual leave you plan to take in advance. Having an early discussion with your employer about your leave dates may be helpful for planning cover and discussions about your workload in the lead up to your maternity leave.

I hope that helps and that all goes well.

Dear StraightUpNotHavingAGoodTime

Thank you for your query and I'm sorry to hear about your issues at work. Under UK employment law, employers have a duty to assess the workplace risks to pregnant employees and take reasonable action to protect your health and safety by altering your working conditions or hours of work.

This includes risks such as:

heavy lifting or carrying;
standing or sitting for long periods without adequate breaks;
exposure to toxic substances; or
long working hours.

Therefore, we recommend that you ask your employer to take reasonable action to protect your health and safety on the basis of your pregnancy, and in accordance with their legal duties. You must notify your employer of your pregnancy in writing in order to be entitled to health and safety protection so you should write to them or send them an email confirming your pregnancy and setting out your concerns (if you have not already done so).

If you are concerned about your health and safety at work, you could discuss this with your midwife or GP and, if necessary, ask for a letter or fit note setting out the risks and action that needs to be taken.

Your employer must take reasonable action remove any identified risks by altering your working conditions or hours of work, such as providing somewhere to sit down or additional rest breaks. If it is not possible to remove the risks, you are entitled to be offered suitable alternative work on similar terms and conditions or, if no work exists, you are entitled to be suspended on full pay.

If your employer has not dealt with any health and safety issues adequately and you are forced to take sick leave your Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) may be reduced. If you do not qualify for SMP at all you can claim Maternity Allowance instead.

As a starting point, we recommend asking to have an informal chat with your employer and trying to resolve things amicably. If necessary, you can write to your employer, your HR department or a senior manager and ask them to look into it further. If you are in a trade union you should speak to your local representative or you can get legal advice from the union’s legal department.

If there are risks at work and your employer has not taken action to remove them, you may be able to claim for any loss of wages and pregnancy discrimination in an employment tribunal. You can find more information on the Maternity Action website here: https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/health-and-safety-during-pregnancy-and-on-return-to-work/

The Right to Rest
By law, employees have the right to the following rest:

during the working day - a 20-minute rest break if they're expected to work more than 6 hours during the day. Additionally, pregnant workers are entitled to more frequent rest breaks, and these should be provided as necessary.
between working days - 11 hours' rest between finishing work and starting work.

If you are being scheduled to work with less than the 11-hour minimum rest period, this may be a breach of those regulations. We would recommend that you first try resolving this by:

talking with your employer and raising the potential breach
raising a grievance on this point if you have not already

If your employer still does not resolve the issue, you may be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal.

Next steps
Here are the steps I would recommend:

Document Everything: Keep a detailed record of all instances where you feel you have been treated unfairly, including dates, times, and the nature of the incidents. This documentation can be crucial in any grievance or legal proceedings.
Contact HR: If you have not done so already, raise the issue with your Human Resources department. They may be able to intervene and facilitate a resolution.
Formal Grievance: While you have mentioned that you feel another grievance may lead nowhere, it is important to follow your employer's formal grievance procedure. This is your right, and it can sometimes lead to a resolution. Make sure to outline your concerns clearly and refer to the specific legal rights that you believe have been breached. I would normally recommend raising a grievance as a last resort when all attempts to resolve it informally have not worked.
Health and Safety Executive: If you believe your health and safety or that of your unborn child is being compromised, you can contact the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for advice and support. HSE guidance on how to raise a concern can be found here: https://www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/  I suggest letting your employer know that you will be raising it with HSE first as this may prompt them to resolve it.
Medical Evidence: Speak to your midwife or GP and ask for a letter or fit note setting out the risks and action that needs to be taken. If you are not well enough to work, you can be signed off sick during pregnancy and you are entitled to take sick leave and any sick pay that you normally qualify for. If you need to take sick leave, your employer must not pressure you to find cover or work until you are fit to return. However, providing you are fit for work, your employer must ensure that you have safe working hours and conditions.

I hope things improve and that all goes well.

We hope you found the Maternity Action legal clinic helpful. Thank you to all our volunteer lawyers who helped this week. Any outstanding replies will be sent to you by private message. Some can take a little longer where we have had to wait for conflict of interest checks. Thank you!