Pregnant women and mothers are facing more “discrimination and poor treatment” at work now than they did 10 years ago, MPs have warned.
A report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee is calling for an end to discriminatory redundancies of pregnant women and more protection for agency workers.
Teachers have welcomed the MPs’ report, with the NASUWT warning that female teachers have been facing these kind of issues “for some time”.
The MPs draw on 2015 research by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Equality and Human Rights Commission into pregnancy and maternity discrimination in the UK.
It shows that twice as many pregnant women and new mothers face redundancy or feel forced to leave their jobs today than in similar research conducted in 2005. The findings included:
- Half of mothers reported a negative impact on their career, such as being given duties at a lower level (if scaled up to the general population this could mean as many as 260,000 mothers a year).
- Around 20 per cent said that they had experienced harassment or negative comments related to pregnancy or flexible working from their employer and/or colleagues (up to 100,000 women a year).
- Eleven per cent reported being either dismissed, made compulsorily redundant, where others in their workplace were not, or treated so poorly that they felt they had to leave their job (up to 54,000 women a year).
- Ten per cent said that their employer had discouraged them from attending antenatal appointments (up to 53,000 women a year).
The report states: “Women reported that negative and possibly discriminatory experiences were more likely to happen during pregnancy than on maternity leave or afterwards. However, women were more likely to report feeling forced to leave their job once they had returned to work.
“Length of service and occupation were identified as key drivers of negative or discriminatory treatment. Women with five years or more of service were less likely to say they had experienced poor treatment and those with two to five years’ service were most likely to do so.”
Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said the issue of discrimination against pregnant women was one her union came across regularly in its case work. One of the common problems in education is a denial of the right to flexible working.
During pregnancy and early maternity (and after 26 weeks’ continuous employment), employees have the right to request flexible working. Employers must consider such requests in a reasonable manner and within a reasonable period of time. If the request is refused, the relevant notification must set out clear business reasons for the denial and the employee is unable to re-apply within the next 12 months.
However, a recent NASUWT survey showed that of those women teachers who had made a flexible working request, half had had their request declined – with many being told that they did not have the right.
Ms Keates added: “The latest report from the Women and Equalities Commission sadly reflects and confirms the issues and concerns the NASUWT has been raising with government and employers about the treatment of women teachers for some time.
“The NASUWT’s extensive research has highlighted discriminatory, unfair and less favourable treatment of women teachers with regard to pay and promotion, particularly during pregnancy or following maternity leave.
“The stark reality highlighted by our research and casework evidence is that all-too-often when a woman teacher asks for flexible working she is told she has no right and when she is pregnant she is shown the door. The union has example upon example of pregnant teachers being denied promotion, pay progression and even being asked to relinquish promoted posts they have worked hard to achieve.”
The MPs’ report criticizes the government’s response to the research last year for not setting “specific targets, timelines or detailed plans” about the action it would take.
The government had pledged to improve access to information, do more to promote family-friendly workplaces, and to improve health and safety. However, chair of the committee, Maria Miller MP, said the government’s strategy lacked “urgency and bite”.
In their recommendations, MPs want to see increased protection from redundancy written into employment law mirroring the system in Germany, where pregnant women can only be made redundant in certain circumstances.
MPs are also concerned that women are not taking action against discrimination in large enough numbers in terms of tribunals and want to extend the time limit on pregnancy and discrimination cases from three to six months.
Maternity-related rights should also be extended to casual, agency and zero-hours workers, they conclude.
Ms Miller said: “The arrival of a new baby puts family finances under extreme pressure yet, despite this, thousands of expectant and new mothers have no choice but to leave their work because of concerns about the safety of their child or pregnancy discrimination. Shockingly this figure has almost doubled in the last decade, now standing at 54,000.
“There are now record numbers of women in work in the UK. The economy will suffer unless employers modernise their workplace practices to ensure effective support and protection for expectant and new mums.
“The government’s approach has lacked urgency and bite. It needs to set out a detailed plan outlining the specific actions it will take to tackle this unacceptable level of discrimination. This work must be underpinned by concrete targets and changes to laws and protections to increase compliance by employers to improve women’s lives.”
Ms Keates added: “More than three quarters of the teaching profession are women and the level of inequality is simply unacceptable.
“The NASUWT has warned repeatedly, since 2011, that such poor practices would flourish if the government continued to present equality and the rights of workers as unimportant and gave excessive freedoms, flexibilities and discretion over pay and conditions to employers. The government now has to act swiftly to clear up the mess it has created and I look forward to the new prime minister and secretary of state for education delivering on their promises to tackle inequality.”
The report, entitled Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination, can be downloaded via http://bit.ly/2c5qyO3