02-08-2019

On Monday 22nd July the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) made an announcement that has for some has resulted in a collective sigh of relief.

What was the announcement? It was to let new parents and pregnant women that their protection of redundancy had been extended for a further six months from the day they return to work. The extension of protection not just pregnant women or new mums but those who have adopted or are taking shared parental leave, BEIS reasoned that the extension will be protection against discrimination irrespective of gender. The extra protection is as a direct result of a consultation that the government undertook at the beginning of this year, the responses received showed that new parents are still encountering unfair treatment at work. As we are aware discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy or maternity leave are illegal here in the UK and that their protection ceases as soon as they have returned to work.

The business minister, Kelly Tolhurst said: “There is no place for discrimination against new parents in the modern workplace. It is unacceptable that new parents continue to feel they are treated unfairly and the government is determined to put an end to this.

“The reforms announced today will better protect new parents, giving them the peace of mind to manage the return to work while also caring for a new child.”

The government intend to continue their family friendly pursuit and have set up a task force that includes employers and family groups that will develop plans enabling pregnant women and new mums to remain in work.

The taskforce is also charged with making recommendations on how awareness can be raised regarding the obligations that an employer has in terms of their obligations to employees regarding discrimination but also the rights of the employees.

The setup of the taskforce and the extended protection is in part due to the government’s ‘Good Work Plan’ which was their response to Matthew Taylor’s report ‘Good work: the Taylor review of modern working practices’.


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