An employer must treat you in exactly the same way as any other job applicant. When applying for work you must not be rejected because you are:
- pregnant (which would be pregnancy discrimination) or
- likely to be pregnant (which would be sex discrimination) or
- about to go on maternity leave (which would be maternity discrimination).
An employer must not, because of your pregnancy:
- refuse to interview you or not appoint you to a job
- give you a job for a limited period instead of permanent employment
- offer you a lower salary or other different, less favourable terms than you would otherwise have been offered.
Protection from discrimination applies to workers as well as employees. This may include some agency and self-employed workers. There is further information about different types of workers and about agency workers’ rights.
Yes. If you are qualified to do the job you should not let pregnancy stop you from applying. An employer must not refuse to appoint you to the job because of your pregnancy.
If an employer does not appoint you because they assume that you might become pregnant because you are of childbearing age, or have recently got married, this would be sex discrimination or marriage discrimination (not pregnancy discrimination). You should write to the employer asking for the reasons you were not appointed to the job. If you are not satisfied with the explanation and believe you have been discriminated against, you should seek advice if you want to take your complaint further. There is an ACAS Code which sets out the procedure for asking questions how the employer should respond.
It is not unlawful for an employer to ask you if you are pregnant or intend to have children.
However, if you answer questions about being pregnant or having children in the future, and you do not get a job, you could argue that this is the reason you did not get the job.
No, a recruitment agent should not ask if you are pregnant. If you are disadvantaged by the agency, for example by not being put forward for posts, because you are pregnant, this would be pregnancy discrimination.
No you do not have to tell your new employer you are pregnant before you accept the job offer. If you do tell your employer and they withdraw the job offer because you are pregnant, it would be pregnancy discrimination.
No. Your pregnancy is not relevant to your suitability for the job. It would be pregnancy discrimination to dismiss you because you did not say you were pregnant during the interview.
You can write to the employer and ask questions about why you did not get the job. There is an ACAS Code which sets out the procedure for asking questions and how the employer should respond while will help you craft questions and inform you of your rights and protections. //www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/m/p/Asking-and-responding-to-questions-of-discrimination-in-the-workplace.pdf
For example, you could write to the employer to ask:
- Who was the successful candidate and what experience and qualifications did s/he have?
- Why was the successful candidate appointed over you, giving details of all reasons why s/he was a better candidate?
- What, if any, part of the job requirements/personal specification were you lacking?
- Was any account taken of your pregnancy? If so, what?
The employer is not legally required to answer the questions but failure to do so may be taken into account by an employment tribunal if you make a discrimination claim about what happened.
Yes. There is no reason why you should not apply for promotion when you are pregnant. If you are discouraged from applying for promotion, or refused promotion, because your are pregnant or about to go on maternity leave, this would be pregnancy or maternity discrimination. Your employer must not take into account your pregnancy when making a decision about whether to recruit or promote you.
You must not be refused promotion because of your pregnancy. If your employer decides not to promote you because you are pregnant that would be pregnancy discrimination. Talk to your manager about your promotion. If your employer refuses to discuss this, you could write and ask why you have not been promoted.
A potential employer must not treat you unfavourably because you are pregnant. When applying for work you must not be rejected because you are pregnant (which would be pregnancy discrimination) and unable to complete the full length of time of the fixed-term job.
An employer must not, because of your pregnancy:
- refuse to interview you or decline to appoint you to a job
- give you a job for a limited period instead of permanent employment
- offer you a lower salary or other different, less favourable terms than you would otherwise have been offered.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2017