Redundancy protections for new and expectant mums to be reviewed

The government is to look at what more can be done to protect pregnant women and new mothers from redundancy. But what is lacking at the moment are any real details.

This move comes after the Women and Equalities Committee published its inquiry findings in late 2016 on workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The inquiry was prompted by 2015 research which found that discrimination towards pregnant women and new mothers had doubled since a similar study 10 years previously.

The Committee made a series of recommendations, the most headline-grabbing one of which is that employers should only be able to terminate the contract of a woman who is pregnant or on maternity leave (and for a period of six months afterwards) in specified circumstances.

What we have now in the government’s response is simply a consultation promised in due course, along with warm words from the minister concerned about ‘zero tolerance’ of such discrimination. On redundancy, the response states that the government ‘will consider further and bring forward proposals to ensure that the protections in place for those who are pregnant or returning from maternity leave are sufficient’.

The government has specifically rejected the following recommendations of the Committee:

  • Extending the three-month time limit (to six months) for bringing tribunal claims – the government believes that tribunals already have a broad power to extend time limits where it is just and equitable to do so
  • Requiring employers to undertake an individual risk assessment when they are informed that a woman who works for them is pregnant, has given birth in the past six months or is breastfeeding - the government believes the law is sufficient in this area
  • Reducing tribunal fees for discrimination claims

As to the Committee’s call for greater protection for women with casual, agency and zero-hour jobs, the government said this issue will be covered in the review of employment rights it commissioned (in October 2016) from Matthew Taylor.

To read the government’s response in full, see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pregnancy-and-maternity-discrimination-response-to-the-select-committee-report