Dismissal and pregnancy and other parental rights 





Dismissing a woman because she is pregnant or for any reason connected with her pregnancy is automatically unfair (section 99(1)(a), ERA 96). So is dismissing a woman for any reason relating to the fact that she has given birth to a child, where the dismissal ends the maternity leave (regulation 20(4), MPLR).


Dismissing an employee for exercising, or attempting to exercise, statutory rights to take maternity, adoption or shared parental leave or because the employer thought she might try to do this is also automatically unfair.


Dismissing a woman because she took or tried to take any of the benefits linked to statutory maternity, adoption or shared parental leave (SPL), such as seeking to enforce preserved terms and conditions, (for example, asking to take the annual leave she built up while away), is automatically unfair. In the case of SPL, the protection is also available to the partner who shares the SPL with the mother.


It is automatically unfair to dismiss an employee for asking to work flexibly or for attempting to exercise statutory rights to parental or emergency dependent leave (see Chapter 9).


Dismissing an employee because she takes (or refuses to take) KIT or SPLIT days is also automatically unfair (see Chapter 9).


It is also automatically unfair dismissal not to renew a fixed-term contract because the woman will not be available for work at the start of the new contract term because of her pregnancy. The EAT has said that any other conclusion would encourage employers to try to get around legal protections by issuing successive fixed-term contracts (Caruana v Manchester Airport [1995] UKEAT 687/94/1411).


This protection is available from day one of the employment. No service is needed. All employees, including those on zero hours contracts, are covered.


An employee who is dismissed while pregnant or on maternity leave has the right to written reasons for dismissal without requesting them. No service is needed (section 92, ERA 96).


As long as the main reason for dismissal is to do with a woman’s pregnancy or maternity, it will be automatically unfair even if there might be other reasons to dismiss.
The dismissal will be automatically unfair even if the decision to dismiss is taken after the woman has returned from maternity leave, for example, selecting a woman for redundancy based on her pregnancy-related sickness absence.


There will also be an automatically unfair dismissal if there is a redundancy situation while the employee is on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave and a suitable vacancy is available during the leave that is not offered to the employee, leading to their dismissal for redundancy. See Chapter 11, page 411.




A dismissal that is connected to pregnancy, maternity or childbirth can also amount to pregnancy, maternity or sex discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 (see Chapter 7).