Coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance for employers: Your duties on pregnancy and maternity

You must not discriminate against employees who are:

pregnant
on or returning from maternity leave
breastfeeding

Unless a pregnant employee or new mother needs adjustments to her working conditions for health and safety reasons, you should treat her the same as any other employee.

1. Carry out a risk assessment

A risk assessment for all pregnant workers and new and breastfeeding mothers must take into account:

their job
any pre-existing health conditions
use of public transport
guidance relating to COVID-19
whether the workplace risk is greater than in everyday life outside the workplace, including getting to and from work

2. Make reasonable changes to working conditions

If a risk is identified in the workplace which is greater than the risk outside the workplace, you must make reasonable changes to avoid that risk, such as:

adjusting working conditions or hours, to enable pregnant women to work during quieter hours and in conditions which adhere to social distancing measures to mitigate the risks of contracting COVID-19 while pregnant
providing a suitable place to rest for breastfeeding mothers that allows any COVID-related guidance to be followed – it is also good practice to provide reasonable facilities and breaks

If this is not possible, for example because a healthcare assistant is in close proximity to others, or because pregnant women are less likely to have been vaccinated and could therefore be at greater risk when returning to the workplace, especially if unable to socially distance, then you must:

offer a suitable alternative job where the terms are similar and not substantially less favourable
suspend her on full pay if no other suitable work can be found

3. Ensure any changes to a role are lawful

Make sure the selection process around redundancies, including criteria and scoring, does not disadvantage an employee because of pregnancy, maternity leave or a related reason.

Do not select for redundancy, dismiss, overlook for promotion or reduce the hours, shifts or opportunity for bonuses of an employee just because:

they are pregnant
they have a pregnancy related illness
they are about to go on maternity leave
you want to avoid obligations under health and safety legislation

If you dismiss an employee who is pregnant:

you must provide her with a written explanation about why she was dismissed or offer her a suitable alternative job where the terms are similar and not substantially less favourable
if the employee has worked continuously for you for at least two years you must also show there is a fair reason for the dismissal and that you followed a fair procedure

Acas has more information on what you need to do for the dismissal to be fair.

If you select an employee on maternity leave for redundancy:

you are legally required to give her the first option on any suitable alternative work which is available
she must be considered before any other employee
it is your responsibility to identify a suitable alternative available position and offer it to your employee
it is not enough to tell the employee to search the intranet to find a suitable alternative job

4. Communicate with those on, or about to go on, maternity leave

You can ask about when the employee wants to start her maternity leave but she is only required to give a definite date 15 weeks before her due date.

You must not insist maternity leave is taken earlier than planned if:

she wants to continue working and can do so without additional health and safety risks
she has to self-isolate, cannot come to work or is off sick for non-pregnancy related sickness
she is off sick with pregnancy-related sickness unless she is in the last four weeks before her maternity leave starts

Do not put pressure on a worker to cut short maternity leave or confirm a return date:

an employee entitled to maternity leave must take at least two weeks compulsory maternity leave after the baby is born, or four weeks if she is a factory worker
you must not ask a woman to work, or allow her to do so, in this compulsory period - she is entitled to return any time after that, provided she gives you eight weeks’ notice
employees are legally entitled to take up to 52 weeks maternity leave
you must assume that a woman on maternity leave will return at the end of the 52 weeks unless she gives eight weeks’ notice to return earlier - the same applies to adoption leave

Don’t postpone an employee’s return to work from maternity leave unless:

she wants to postpone it and you agree, whether paid or unpaid
she changes the return date and has not given you the full eight weeks’ notice, in which case you can delay her return but only up to the end of the eight weeks

You must contact employees on maternity leave about:

any reorganisation, or other changes that affect her job
any promotion or other job opportunities, explaining what she needs to do to apply
possible or planned redundancies or furlough that might affect her

It is best practice to:

offer Keeping In Touch days – up to 10 days of work during maternity leave that doesn’t affect entitlement to Statutory Maternity Pay and may help with understanding changes to roles and workplaces during the pandemic

5. Monitor the impact of your decisions

Useful questions to ask include:

have you treated a pregnant worker differently to other employees in a way that could affect their pay, job prospects or job security?
is there something you can do differently to ensure these unintended consequences don’t happen?
are you monitoring the impact of your decisions on pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers?

For more information, please see our full guidance for employers on how to support pregnant women, employees on maternity leave and those returning from maternity leave.