Pregnancy and sick pay

A woman absent from work when pregnant due to a pregnancy-related illness has the same contractual sick pay rights as any other employee. She is not entitled to better sick pay rights (for example full pay) even though her illness is pregnancy-related, unless her contract says so (North Western Health Board v McKenna [2005] IRLR 895).

Employees off work with a pregnancy-related illness during the four weeks before the maternity leave start date can be required by their employer to start their maternity leave early (see Chapter 9, page 318).

Employees who fall ill during maternity, adoption or shared parental leave cannot claim sick pay while on leave.

See also page 288: Direct pregnancy and maternity discrimination; and Chapter 9: Rights to time off for working parents and carers.

The Coronavirus pandemic is a particularly worrying time for pregnant women. Public Health England guidance has strongly advised all pregnant women to limit their face-to-face contact, work from home if possible, and to avoid public transport wherever possible. This is an evolving situation and specialist charity Maternity Action is regularly updating a series of FAQs on rights and benefits for those who are pregnant and on maternity leave, available at: https://maternityaction.org.uk/covidmaternityfaqs/. They cover health and safety advice, working from home, protection from serious and imminent risk to health at work (see page 378), protection from automatically unfair dismissal (see Chapter 10) and protection from pregnancy, maternity and sex discrimination (see Chapter 7).