Pregnant women and new parents will receive extra protected rights from redundancy following their return from maternity/statutory leave. The rights are to be extended by a further 6 months following their return to work.
Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc.; Regulations Act 1999, provides that where a redundancy situation arises during an employee’s maternity leave and no suitable alternative role exists after reviewing all options then under these circumstances the only alternative would be redundancy, but employers must still ensure caution when reviewing.
Given the current protection period in relation to redundancy and maternity leave, for mothers taking the full leave entitlement of 52 weeks, protection could amount to 18 months.
Working Families CEO Jane Van Zyl said:
We hear from women struggling with pregnancy and maternity discrimination every single day on our helpline. These reforms are a step forward in protecting the jobs of new mothers and parents returning to work, sending a strong message to rogue employers that discriminating against new parents is unacceptable.
These rights will also be extended to parents taking adoption leave and will apply to the nominated ‘main parent’. Whilst the rights extend to shared parental leave, because there are legal and practical differences between this and maternity leave, government has decided that this may require a different approach. Further guidance on this will be issued in due course.
As part of the continued review of policies, a new taskforce will be established, consisting of employer and family representative groups. The taskforce will make recommendations on what improvements can be made to the information available to employers and families on pregnancy and maternity discrimination. It will also develop an action plan on what steps government and other organisations can take to make it easier for pregnant women and new mothers to stay in work.
