Two new employment laws that strengthen the existing law related to pregnancy, maternity leave and other family leave have recently received Royal assent.

The Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act

Employees are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave, a right that they have from when they first start their job.

The Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act will extend the rights of pregnant employees currently afforded to them whilst on maternity leave or other forms of parental leave including adoption leave to beyond the period of their leave. It is anticipated that this may extended up to 18 months after the birth of the child.

The Equality Act 2010 provides protections in relation to pregnancy and maternity leave and made it unlawful to discriminate against women on the basis of maternity related issues and it forms a protected characteristic under the act.

If a person has been made redundant during maternity leave, under Regulation 10 of the Maternity and Paternity Leave Regulations 1999 an employer is required to offer first refusal to an employee who falls into the category when there is an alternative vacancy available.

There was a growing belief that pregnant women and new parents were disproportionally being made redundant and the Equality and Human Rights Commission was commissioned by the Government to investigate. The subsequent report found that an unacceptable 77% of the women who took part had experienced discriminatory treatment during their maternity leave or on their return to the workplace and 11% felt forced to resign. Employers appeared to earmark women on maternity leave and on their return to work they are almost immediately informed that they were being considered for redundancy. Employers should be aware that such practices expose them to the possibility that former employees will bring a case in the Employment Tribunal.

Employers ought to take extra care in ensuring they comply with the upcoming changes in law as well as the current legislation in respect of such matters, and make certain that pregnant employees are protected against discrimination and given first refusal of any suitable alternative vacancies when redundancy is being considered, including associated businesses within the employer's organisation. However, such employees should not be excluded from the redundancy pool altogether, and they should be considered as part of the process, subject to the legislation in place. Failure to do so could be considered discriminatory on other employees within the pool, although the regulations as they stand and going forward are an example of a rare exception in law which allows lawful positive discrimination.

The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act

In addition to the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act, another Act relating to new parents, The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act, has also received Royal Assent. Rather than extending the rights of new parents, this new legislation will provide additional rights to new parents where a neonatal infant is admitted to hospital.

This Act relates to parents whose newborn baby is unwell and is admitted to neonatal care for seven continuous days before the baby is 28 days old. It is estimated that every year 60,000 parents experience a critically ill neonatal child in hospital. Currently, parents must rely on existing leave provisions and are provided with no further assistance. The new parents will now be afforded additional statutory leave of up to 12 weeks if their child meets the criteria.

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