Looking after the jobs of new parents

On January 25, a consultation was held by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in which the government looked at extending the legal protection against redundancy for new parents and pregnant women after they return to work.

The review is another one of the government’s initiatives in line with the Taylor Review of modern working practices which provides a national strategy to provide ‘good work’ for all in the UK.

What are the current legal protections?

At present, The Equality Act 2010 and The Maternity and Parental Leave Etc. Regulations 1999 which is made under The Employment Rights Act 1996 are the only regulations covering the legal protection that is currently offered for pregnancy and maternity. The Equality Act 2010 states that there is a ‘protected period’ that protects pregnant women and new mothers from being discriminated against when they return to work. This period commences from the start of a woman’s pregnancy until she returns to work after maternity leave.

The Maternity and Parental Leave Etc. Regulations 1999 Act (MAPLE) states that an employer must offer a ‘suitable’ and ‘appropriate’ alternative vacancy to the employee where a vacancy is available with the current employer or an associated employer and this must be offered before they make the employee on maternity leave redundant. Additionally, the alternative vacancy cannot be ‘substantially less favourable’ than the employee’s previous role.

New proposed entitlement: The government has proposed the redundancy period should continue for up to six months after new parents and pregnant women return to work. This will assist in eliminating discrimination and offering a culture which better supports mothers in the workplace.

In 2016, the BEIS found that one in nine women said they were either fired, made redundant or treated badly as a way of forcing them to leave their jobs when they returned to work after having a child.

The Taylor Review identified that pregnancy and maternity in the workplace is a complex area and there is a requirement for a consistent approach to be made to address this. The simplest way to do this would be to extend the legal protection that is currently offered against redundancy under The Maternity and Parental Leave Etc. Regulations 1999. This would allow pregnant women and new mothers to have the same legal entitlement as women on maternity leave.