Pregnant not screwed

Pregnant women and new parents will receive greater protection from being made redundant under new proposed legislation. The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill was a Private Members' Bill, now backed by the government and therefore likely to become law.

Under current rules, before making an employee on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave redundant, employers are obliged to offer them a suitable alternative vacancy where one exists in priority to anyone else who is provisionally selected for redundancy.

The new Bill will extend protection so that it applies to pregnant women before they start maternity leave and after they return to work. It will also protect new parents returning to work from adoption or shared parental leave. The protection will start from the point at which the employee tells their employer that they are pregnant and will end 18 months from the start of their maternity leave. So, a woman who takes the maximum maternity leave of 52 weeks, will get an extra six months' protection after her maternity leave ends. 

JP view: Does this mean that employers won't be able to make pregnant woman redundant?

No. The protection will work in the same way as it currently does for women on maternity leave. Redundancy is a potentially fair reason for dismissing an employee.  However, in a redundancy situation, you are also required to show that you followed a fair procedure before making any employee redundant and if the Bill becomes law this will require any suitable alternative vacancy being prioritised for a pregnant woman from pregnancy up to 6 months after she has returned to work (new adoptive parents and shared parental leave returners are also set to be protected).  

The Bill has yet to be approved by the House of Lords. If it is, it will require further regulations setting out the detail. Our best guess is that this won’t become law before the year is out, but you never know.