Employers are legally required to ensure working conditions that do not pose any health risks to the pregnant employee and her baby. {articularly in jobs with obvious risks, it is important that employees share their pregnancy news early, so that necessary precautions can be taken. It is unlawful to dismiss a worker or treat her unfavourably because she cannot do the same work as a result of health and safety risks during pregnancy or upon the return to work, for example, when breastfeeding (link to BF section under Return to Work). Often it only takes some small changes (see Reasonable Adjustments) to a pregnant employee’s role to ensure there are no health and safety risks to mother and child.
“We work in an office, so there is a lot of sitting in front of computers… [during my second pregnancy] we had our standing desks which really helped me to be able to stand rather than sit all the time. And I made sure I went on walks at lunch times… to keep moving.” (Sian, Small business employee)
“I had to tell them really early on… because I worked with vulnerable people, so they needed to make sure they did a risk assessment… and I ended up working from home for the full nine months.” (Aisha, Small business employee)
