Pregnant employees have legal rights on their employers in the English law. The law is strict and focuses clearly on the benefits a pregnant woman will get from the employer once she is expecting. The foremost important things to remember is to know your rights. Nadia is scared because she fears of losing her job once her line manager Gemma finds out about her pregnancy. The advice to Nadia is that the law is there to protect the employees from such scenarios that arise and make sure the employees reap the benefits from the laws. All women who get pregnant have certain basic legal rights which include; time off for antenatal care, leave for maternity and safeguard from dismissal,unjust treatment. Nadia’s employer is at breach with the law as she has declared that any person who wants to go for antenatal classes should go on their own time, further on she restricts the maternity leave to one month and that too without pay. Lastly, she is unfair and does not guarantee job security to the employee after her return. All this makes the employee apprehensive and wish to not get pregnant. The Employement Protection Act 1975 provides that no pregnant woman can be made redundant, dismissed from job or treated with unjust because of her pregnancy. Nadia can make a claim through employment tribunal for compensation if any of the above happens. A pregnant woman is entitled to many rights and benefits and it is the responsibility of the employer to be more flexible on the issues of maternity leave and pay. However the pregnancy can not be detected before four weeks and therefore, it is of great importance that you tell your employer immediately in writing when you find out. The law has made the employers legal duty to keep the pregnant woman away from any risk at work. Once it is known to the employer that the employee is expecting, they must carry out a personal risk assessment which is specific for that person (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999).
It is mandatory that this risk assessment must be reviewed from time to time and even when the woman finally returns to work. The case of Nadia, where Gemma feels that she has to cut costs of the firm. A pregnant woman can take a realistic period of time off for antenatal care and relaxation. All women have this right and so despite the claims of Gemma, the law gives Nadia the right to take this leave irrespective of the number of hours she works and how long she has been employed by the firm. Employers cannot make any changes to the pregnant woman’s contract terms and conditions; otherwise they will be in breach of contract. A pregnant woman is entitled to a year of maternity leave, which are 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave and 26 weeks of additional maternity leave (Gov.UK).
The employment terms, for instance, the pension contributions are protected while you are on Statutory Maternity Leave. If an employee is made redundant, like the line manager of Nadia points out that the employee has additional rights. During this leave period, the Statutory Maternity Pay is 90% of your average salary for the first six weeks, after which a person is paid 90% of her average earnings. Once the pregnant woman comes back to work she can take back exactly the same job she had left, however, if that job does not exist than the employer should provide an alternative job that has similar terms.
The law does not permit the employer to treat any employee unfairly and dismiss her from employment as redundant because of her pregnancy.If the employer dismisses the employee then he must state the reason and the pregnant woman can contend this decision in court and employment tribunal. Further, if the employer claims that the woman is redundant because of her pregnancy or maternity leave then the employee can claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.
There is special protection provided in the Regulation of Maternity and Parental leave 1999. Therefore, Nadia should not fear to tell her employer about her pregnancy and further, she has the right to maternity leave for more than a month as the law states that it could be 52 week.The unpaid leave is a total discrimination and unfair treatment and she can make employer pay during her maternity leave as stated in law. Also, she cannot be dismissed or redundancy as the interests of the employee are safeguarded in the regulations of 1999.

Workplace should have flexibility for working parents so that people make the most use of their employment opportunities and progress in their career. Unfortunately, there has been a dip in this as there is more pressure on the employees to manage work and home at the same time. Research shows that the top priorities of the single parents have been an understanding line manager, flexible and part time job hours and a workplace which is close to the school for their child (Gingerbread Survey).

The case in point is that of an employee Stewart who is a paralegal at the same firm as of Nadia. Since, his child fell off climbing a fence and broke his arm; he needs to be taken to the doctor for physiotherapy. As Stewart is a single parent he has every right to claim for time off work. However the line manager seems to be a less understanding person, Stewart must know his rights and know that English law protects single parent at work place in various ways. In this case, the law states that in such a situation an employer can schedule another employee to work overtime to compensate for hours that a single parent cannot work due to childcare commitments and similarly, the shift can be covered by another employee to cover for the single parent while he picks up children from school or any other child related issue.
In this scenario, the situation Stewart is taking the child to the doctor for physiotherapy sessions. It will take a limited time period and thus, for that missed time someone else can cover for him. It has been reported that these types of issues that occur at workplace are not considered to be of discriminatory in most cases. Such, inflexible workplace practices hinder employees at workplace and childcare becomes a burden on them.
Today, it has been the top priority of an employee to find a flexible and understanding line manager. The child care also has a cost and reduced working hours will have an effect and thus there are compensatory laws that allow a single working parent to work lesser hours that do not have an effect on his salary. The English law has a Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD) Act 2010 that describes precisely about the type of discriminations that can affect any worker. This law includes married, engaged women, single men, and parents of young children and employees that are responsible for their elderly parents.
Stewart should talk to the line manager to create flexible work schedule for him since it is something that he must do for his child and it is a reasonable demand. In such situations there is a Time off for Dependents clause, which is a right given to an individual of unpaid leave of work in order to deal with emergencies that involve people who are your dependents. The time off can be taken in the following circumstances such as if a dependent falls ill, gives birth or is injured and needs your assistance. In Stewart’s case his child is a dependent. There is no time limit as to too how much time off is allowed in a particular situation, however, your time off must be necessary and cannot be something that you should prefer to do. The time off should be till the time the person is able to deal with the circumstances and it cannot be too long since it would no longer fall as an emergency.
Gemma should be able to understand, otherwise Stewart can take help from employment tribunal. Stewart is working 40 hours a week which is the same as any other person working without children. Thus, he is putting huge effort into managing life at home with work and so the employer needs to understand and be flexible. The matter between the two must be resolved informally and if there is unfair treatment by the employer than a formal complaint can be lodged with the Employment Tribunal within the three months. In most cases the employer does not have issue with the time off as it is an unpaid leave. Employers are not liable to pay the employee anything during his time off, however, some employers do offer paid emergency time off and this if stated in the contract cannot be taken away without the agreement by the employee.

--------------------------------------------