The Bill aims to provide protection from redundancy during or after pregnancy, or after periods of maternity, adoption, or shared parental leave.
The reason for introducing this bill was because evidence reported that new parents were facing prejudice in the workplace, with an estimated 54,000 new parents feeling they had to leave their jobs due to pregnancy or maternity discrimination each year.
Under current rules, employers are obliged to offer employees on maternity, shared parental or adoption leave an available alternative post, as a priority over anyone else who is provisionally selected for redundancy.
The new bill proposes to extend redundancy protection to cover pregnant employees from when they tell the employer they are pregnant, until 18 months after the birth. The 18-month window ensures that a mother returning from a year of maternity leave can receive six months’ additional redundancy protection. It will also apply to adoption leave and shared parental leave.
The Bill also seeks to reduce disadvantages and unfair treatment in a workplace. The government believes that this will help shield new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security at an important time in their lives.
Reflecting on future changes, many employers have now started to implement enhanced parental leave policies. Ahead of the third reading next week, it is vital for employers to review existing policies to ensure these policies offer ample support to parents.
We will provide you with an update once the Secretary of State has implemented the new regulations.
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