One in 20 new mums will be “made redundant during pregnancy, while on maternity leave or shortly after returning to work”, according to a new report.
Maternity Action, a charity supporting pregnant women and new mothers, released the report, which urges the government to take action against pregnancy discrimination.
The charity has accused the government of failing to protect new mothers and failing to act on a pledge to review redundancy protections for pregnant women.
Rosalind Bragg, Director of Maternity Action said, “One in every 20 new mothers in the workplace will be made redundant during pregnancy, maternity leave or the months after returning to work.”
“Some of these redundancies are discriminatory, many are completely unfair.”
“The current legal framework is not protecting women from unfair treatment.”
“Women are being forced out of their jobs by redundancies which are not genuine and by discriminatory selection processes.”
“Women who have challenged bad practice by their employers are at particular risk.”
“We are calling for the UK to adopt the German model of redundancy protection for new mothers.”
“Women should not be made redundant, except in limited circumstances, from notification of their pregnancy through to six months after return to work.”
It has not been the first time that calls for ‘German-style’ redundancy protections have been made.
In August 2016, the Women and Equalities Committee called for protections for pregnant women to be introduced, similar to those in Germany.
The committee called for the government to introduce changes to health and safety practices, prevent discriminatory redundancies and increase protection for casual, agency and zero hours workers.
