MPs’ inquiry into pregnancy and maternity discrimination


Despite the legal requirements, a 2016 Women and Equalities parliamentary committee inquiry into pregnancy and maternity discrimination heard that as many as 21,000 women leave their jobs each year because employers are failing to tackle the pregnancy and maternity risks they face at work. It also found that pregnant women and mothers are reporting more discrimination and poor treatment at work than they did a decade ago.


The committee heard that a survey of 3,000 mothers carried out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that two in five (41%) respondents felt there was a risk to, or impact on, their health or welfare. However, 38% said that their employer did not initiate a conversation about risks when they informed them of their pregnancy; almost one in five said they had identified risks that their employer had not; and 10% said that their employer had identified risks and had not tackled them.


The committee reported its findings and recommendations in August 2016 and called for employers to be required to undertake an individual risk assessment when they are informed that a new or expectant mother works for them and said the HSE should include this in its guidance.


The government rejected this recommendation, arguing that the law is “already sufficient”. TUC head of health and safety Hugh Robertson said the recommendation “puts the onus on the worker to let the employer know that they are pregnant”.


“The risk to pregnant women is there regardless of whether the employer, or even the woman herself knows she is pregnant and we have always argued that if the main risk assessment is done properly, then it should reflect the fact that there might be pregnant workers in the workplace, so it should not matter whether or not women have declared that they are pregnant,” he explained.


TUC advice is that risk assessments in any area where a woman of child-bearing age is employed should always presume that someone could be pregnant and remove any potential risks (see the revised HSE advice on page 51).