Pop quiz!
Is it ok to ask a woman at interview stage if she is pregnant or planning to have children?
The answer is no. Worryingly though, a quarter of surveyed employers thought that this was ok.
To help explain why it’s not, we propose this question – would a man be asked the same?
Technically, asking the question is not illegal as long as all candidates are asked, but discriminating against someone because of their answer is. Therefore, avoiding the topic altogether whilst interviewing candidates would be best.
Questions around pregnancy or planning a family are risky, and what may seem like an innocent enquiry can end up being a costly mistake.
Despite this, pregnancy, maternity, and sex discrimination still happens. It’s harmful and damages career progression for women. It also harms a business, affecting equal opportunities in the workplace and causing reputational damage, which is difficult to recoup.
Asking questions is not the only way this sort of discrimination happens. Recent employment tribunals have shown the different ways in which some employers fall foul of pregnancy discrimination. To raise awareness and help you and your leadership team manage with confidence, we have highlighted a couple below.
Learning from tribunals
Rest breaks and time off
An employee who was pregnant during her employment has won more than £24,000 in an employment tribunal, after raising a grievance for pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
What happened? The issues began when Ms Burns took sick leave for pregnancy-related sickness and started to need more breaks at work. Prior to this, she reported having a good relationship with her manager.
Her manager did not record that pregnancy was a reason for the sickness and she was given a warning about her absences, as well as being put on a development programme to monitor her performance at work.
When referring to her pregnancy as a reason for her sickness absence, she was told that “pregnancy in itself is not an illness”. This is true, but proper risk assessments that look at the type of work and the environment are essential.
The employer did do a pregnancy risk assessment, yet failed to involve Ms Burns in the process. This was later amended to allow for short, regular breaks. Breaks continued to be a point of contention though and the relationship broke down, leading to Ms Burns resigning and not returning after her maternity leave.
How could this situation have been avoided? Empathy towards pregnancy-related illness and obtaining occupational health advice about reasonable adjustments can improve relations and trust whilst accurate record keeping is always important.
Pay rises and promotions
In another case, a tribunal awarded £9,000 for injury to feelings after a pregnant employee was refused a pay rise due to her impending maternity leave.
The official reason given for the refusal was that the company could not support it at that time. However, the head of HR, who was friends with the employee, an HR assistant, told her the truth was that the business had decided against it as she would be off in four months’ time.
Her co-worker did not confirm this at tribunal. However, WhatsApp messages provided by the defendant showed they were trusted friends and the tribunal took this on board.
How could this have been avoided? The defendant heading off on maternity leave should never have been considered as a reason to not authorise a pay rise. This case is also another example of poor record keeping. If meetings followed the correct process and notes were taken, WhatsApp messages would not have been needed.
Help when managing a pregnant employee
If you have questions about managing a pregnant employee, whether they be about sickness absence, poor performance, promotions, dismissals or otherwise, we can help.
Without the right experience, you can find yourself in some tricky HR situations, but with the right advice on your side, you can manage your business and all employees with confidence. Ask us to find out more.
