Telling my employer I am pregnant

Clark80

iamana1ias wrote: »

AGAIN, no it isn't. Unless you'd like to
prove otherwise with some kind of evidence

I put it down to possible sex discrimination. Would you ask a man if he was planning to have kids?

iamana1ias

Clark80 wrote: »

I put it down to possible sex discrimination. Would you ask a man if he was planning to have kids?

That's not what you said though, and as I've stated before, as long as all candidates are asked there cannot be any sex discrimination. Only asking female candidates would be discriminatory. I know plenty of men who have been asked about their family circumstances during interviews.

In the OP's case she was the only candidate, so there can't have been any discrimination.

SandC

I'm sure if you had any other options open to you then you wouldn't have taken the job working for such an !!! anyway so I can understand why you have taken the route you have.

It may be better to come out with it now rather than risk further stress closer to when the baby is due. You might find you've no strength to fight a dismissal when all the tribunal issues will be going on while you are pregnant and shortly afterwards when you have a newborn.

I can understand why small employers do not like employing women of childbearing age - well not just small employers to be honest (I worked with one who had 3 kids in the space of 5 years so she had at leat 18 months off on maternity leave - holiday is also accrued whilst on maternity and not to mention all the time off for appointments of which she would also take a full half day - and many weeks of sickness due to bad back as her doctor would sign her off - being a large company they could cope financially but would be paying her full pay plus paying a temp to cover her - hardly contributing a lot to the world of work was it - she probably worked 2.5 years out of 5 on full pay). But fact of the matter is they should not discriminate on the basis of sex or pregnancy related issues and they cannot just sack someone because they are pregnant (although do watch out - they may just decide to keep the lady who is coming back and make you the redundant one instead).

I wish you good luck anyway.

justcat

iamana1ias wrote: »

AGAIN, no it isn't. Unless you'd like to
prove otherwise with some kind of evidence

The Sex and Discrimination Act 1975

Illegal Interview Questions
Employers should not ask about any of the following, because to not hire a candidate because of any one of them is discriminatory:

• Race
• Color
• Sex
• Religion
• National origin
• Birthplace
• Age
• Disability
• Marital/family status

If your employee is dismissed because she is pregnant or she is refused employment because she was or might become pregnant, it is unlawful discrimination.

justcat

To be honest, they were wrong beause they asked you the question in the first place. The fact that you said you weren't planning on having anymore kids doesn't matter as people change their minds and any tribunal would understand that you said that so that you wouldn't be discriminated against.
I would try to somehow get proof that they are happy with your work. Just suggest that you have a quick 1-2-1 or something like that. Then you will have proof that they are happy with your work. Once you have that you can just let them know. If they did do anything or let you go due to this, you could have them for sexual discrimination and have proof that they were perfectly happy with your work before you announced that you were pregnant.
Try and get the 1-2-1 just before you tell them, like a day before or something. Also get a notepad and make notes of any comments that they make before and after making note of the date and time.
I'm sure the above would come in handy if they DID fire you and you needed to take them to court on sexual discrimination grounds.
Hope this helps

mrsmoneyworries

Proc wrote: »

Contribute what? You think that bringing a child into the world you're helping anyone other than yourself? Parents to new-borns think that the world owes them some massive divine favour for bringing up a child. It doesn't.

The other guy didn't work as he was supposed to. He has been fired/let go/whatever accordingly. Having children is an incredible priviledge...not a right that everyone seems to think they are entitled to.

It's this culture that is leading us to over-population. But that's one for another thread.

Not bitter about anything then . . . :rolleyes:

hayley_jayne

Wow, I can't believe some of the comments on this thread!

Firstly, (as mentioned by others already) you are protected by the amendments made in 2005 to the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and by the Employment Rights Act 1996. The latter protects against any of the following whilst you are pregnant:
• Pressure to resign
• Insensitive remarks
• Unfair selection for redundancy
• Refusal of training or promotion opportunities
• Failure to carry out an adequate risk assessment

I think you would be best being upfront about your pregnancy but do not allow yourself to be bullied. Try and be assertive as opposed to aggressive and go with your plan of looking for a solution and working with them. However, make sure you document all conversations and save any relevant emails (Justcat has given some sensible ideas on this).

You have every right to expect support from your employer during your pregnancy and through your maternity leave. Remain professional and if they try and sack you or harass you for being pregnant you MUST take them to a tribunal. This type of behaviour is archaic and really needs to be curtailed.

Best of luck with it and congratulations on your exciting news :T.

H x

PS - For those giving the 'small business' angle; IMHO, if you are incapable as an employer of working within both the law and with a certain level of social responsibility you shouldn't start up in the first place.

purplepardalis

Should it be the incapable, the wealthy by birth or the women with highly paid partners the only people who are allowed to have children?

jdturk

hayley_jayne wrote: »

Wow, I can't believe some of the comments on this thread!

Firstly, (as mentioned by others already) you are protected by the amendments made in 2005 to the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and by the Employment Rights Act 1996. The latter protects against any of the following whilst you are pregnant:
• Pressure to resign
• Insensitive remarks
• Unfair selection for redundancy
• Refusal of training or promotion opportunities
• Failure to carry out an adequate risk assessment

I think you would be best being upfront about your pregnancy but do not allow yourself to be bullied. Try and be assertive as opposed to aggressive and go with your plan of looking for a solution and working with them. However, make sure you document all conversations and save any relevant emails (Justcat has given some sensible ideas on this).

You have every right to expect support from your employer during your pregnancy and through your maternity leave. Remain professional and if they try and sack you or harass you for being pregnant you MUST take them to a tribunal. This type of behaviour is archaic and really needs to be curtailed.

Best of luck with it and congratulations on your exciting news :T.

H x

Not sure why you think you have a right to be supported, a business is a business and whilst they need to act correctly they have no requirement to support the person.

People say the business doesn't lose anything when someone gets pregnant but this isn't true, you lose the money from time taken for appointments, training costs etc etc and I guess the annoyance comes from when you employ someone to do a job and then you have all this extra hassle when they get pregnant.

Generally I see it as one of those things, the one thing I don't agree with is the protected state that pregnant woman get when made redundant. i don't get why a whole department may get redundant and if there is a woman on maternity leave she automatically gets first offer of the job even if out of the people made redundant there are better qualified people

jdturk

purplepardalis wrote: »

Should it be the incapable, the wealthy by birth or the women with highly paid partners the only people who are allowed to have children?

Of course not but there is little consideration given to businesses