[UK] Redundancy protections for pregnant women

Under proposed legislation, pregnant women and new parents in the UK are set to receive greater protection from redundancy, People Management reports.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill began as a private members' bill but is now being backed by the UK government and, therefore, is likely to become law.

The government reportedly pledged to introduce legislation to extend redundancy protection for employees taking maternity leave (and for other new parents), in 2019, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s 2016 investigation into pregnancy and maternity discrimination at work. The commission found that up to 54,000 mothers a year faced discrimination as a result of having taken maternity leave.

The government introduced the Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill that year, however, it failed to complete its passage through parliament. After winning the general election, Boris Johnson said his government would reintroduce this legislation via a new employment bill. It did not happen. 

Then in October 2022, Liz Truss’s government announced that it would back the new private members' bill and it is progressing through parliament. 

Protection for new parents

Before making an employee on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave redundant, employers are, under current rules, 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 reportedly extend existing protection to apply to pregnant women before they start maternity leave and after they return to work. In addition, it will protect new parents returning to work from adoption or shared parental leave. The government believes this will “shield new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security at an important time in their lives”. 

There has been criticism that the bill doesn’t go far enough and calls for reform. Pressure group Maternity Action said the existing protection is little more than a “mirage” and that employers will be able to “ignore or act in deliberate breach of the law, safe in the knowledge that, having just given birth or been away from the workplace for up to a year, a woman is most unlikely to bring an expensive employment tribunal claim – the only means of challenging an unfair redundancy”. It has called for fundamental reform; specifically a legal ban on making a pregnant woman or new mother redundant, other than in limited and clearly specified circumstances, such as the closure of all or part of a workplace.

In 2019 and again in 2020, Maria Miller MP introduced a private member’s bill that would have offered this level of protection. Both bills failed due to a lack of government support.

Duration of protection

The bill provides a framework and empowers the government to introduce regulations that will set out the detail. A recent government press release made it clear that protection will start from the point at which the employee tells their employer that they are pregnant (it is not yet clear whether they will need to provide a MAT1 form first) and end 18 months from the start of their maternity leave. Meaning a woman who takes the maximum maternity leave of 52 weeks will get an extra six months of protection.

Similar provisions will apply to people who are adopting a child or taking shared parental leave.

Will employers be able to make pregnant women redundant?

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 but in a redundancy situation, you are also required to show you followed a fair procedure before making any employee redundant. That will ordinarily entail deciding who is in the pool and adopting a fair selection procedure. You will need to pool all relevant employees including pregnant women. If a pregnant woman is provisionally selected for redundancy, however, she will have the right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy that exists in your organisation. Meaning she takes priority over every other candidate who is not on maternity or other relevant leave. 

To decide if a job is suitable and appropriate the current law says it must be no worse than the woman’s previous job with regard to location, terms, conditions and status. People Management expects the new regulations to mirror this. 

There is the potential for difficulties to arise when more than one employee in a selection process has the right to be offered 'any suitable vacancy'. This might occur when two women in the same department are pregnant and/or on maternity leave at the same time (something that might happen more often once protection is extended over a longer period). 

When will the changes come into force?

Not yet. The bill is still being considered by the House of Commons and will have to go before the Lords too. If it becomes law, it will not change anything until the government introduces new regulations, which will set out the detail.

Rishi Sunak’s government might take a different view and withdraw the government's support for the bill but assuming that doesn't happen, the bill is likely to come into force sometime in 2023.

Source: People Management

(Links and quotes via original reporting)

Under proposed legislation, pregnant women and new parents in the UK are set to receive greater protection from redundancy, People Management reports.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill began as a private members' bill but is now being backed by the UK government and, therefore, is likely to become law.

The government reportedly pledged to introduce legislation to extend redundancy protection for employees taking maternity leave (and for other new parents), in 2019, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s 2016 investigation into pregnancy and maternity discrimination at work. The commission found that up to 54,000 mothers a year faced discrimination as a result of having taken maternity leave.

The government introduced the Pregnancy and Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill that year, however, it failed to complete its passage through parliament. After winning the general election, Boris Johnson said his government would reintroduce this legislation via a new employment bill. It did not happen. 

Then in October 2022, Liz Truss’s government announced that it would back the new private members' bill and it is progressing through parliament. 

Protection for new parents

Before making an employee on maternity leave, shared parental leave or adoption leave redundant, employers are, under current rules, 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 reportedly extend existing protection to apply to pregnant women before they start maternity leave and after they return to work. In addition, it will protect new parents returning to work from adoption or shared parental leave. The government believes this will “shield new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security at an important time in their lives”. 

There has been criticism that the bill doesn’t go far enough and calls for reform. Pressure group Maternity Action said the existing protection is little more than a “mirage” and that employers will be able to “ignore or act in deliberate breach of the law, safe in the knowledge that, having just given birth or been away from the workplace for up to a year, a woman is most unlikely to bring an expensive employment tribunal claim – the only means of challenging an unfair redundancy”. It has called for fundamental reform; specifically a legal ban on making a pregnant woman or new mother redundant, other than in limited and clearly specified circumstances, such as the closure of all or part of a workplace.

In 2019 and again in 2020, Maria Miller MP introduced a private member’s bill that would have offered this level of protection. Both bills failed due to a lack of government support.

Duration of protection

The bill provides a framework and empowers the government to introduce regulations that will set out the detail. A recent government press release made it clear that protection will start from the point at which the employee tells their employer that they are pregnant (it is not yet clear whether they will need to provide a MAT1 form first) and end 18 months from the start of their maternity leave. Meaning a woman who takes the maximum maternity leave of 52 weeks will get an extra six months of protection.

Similar provisions will apply to people who are adopting a child or taking shared parental leave.

Will employers be able to make pregnant women redundant?

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 but in a redundancy situation, you are also required to show you followed a fair procedure before making any employee redundant. That will ordinarily entail deciding who is in the pool and adopting a fair selection procedure. You will need to pool all relevant employees including pregnant women. If a pregnant woman is provisionally selected for redundancy, however, she will have the right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy that exists in your organisation. Meaning she takes priority over every other candidate who is not on maternity or other relevant leave. 

To decide if a job is suitable and appropriate the current law says it must be no worse than the woman’s previous job with regard to location, terms, conditions and status. People Management expects the new regulations to mirror this. 

There is the potential for difficulties to arise when more than one employee in a selection process has the right to be offered 'any suitable vacancy'. This might occur when two women in the same department are pregnant and/or on maternity leave at the same time (something that might happen more often once protection is extended over a longer period). 

When will the changes come into force?

Not yet. The bill is still being considered by the House of Commons and will have to go before the Lords too. If it becomes law, it will not change anything until the government introduces new regulations, which will set out the detail.

Rishi Sunak’s government might take a different view and withdraw the government's support for the bill but assuming that doesn't happen, the bill is likely to come into force sometime in 2023.

Source: People Management

(Links and quotes via original reporting)