Roundup: Moms-to-be in Britain face increased discrimination at work

Pregnant women in the workplace in Britain face increasing discrimination, with many forced out of their jobs, a hard hitting report revealed Wednesday.

The House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee says there has been a shocking increase in workplace pregnancy discrimination over the past decade.

MPs who serve on the committee have demanded urgent action, calling on the government to publish an ambitious, detailed plan within the next two years or risk a further rise in pregnant women and mothers being forced out of their work.

Research carried out by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has revealed that pregnant women and mothers now face more discrimination at work than they did a decade ago.

The study reveals 11 percent of women reported being either dismissed, made compulsorily redundant when others in their workplace were not, or treated so poorly they felt they had to leave their job. The committee wants a change in the law to give new and expectant mothers additional protection from redundancy.

They say there must be changes to health and safety practices, preventing discriminatory redundancies and an increase in protection for women employed in casual or agency jobs as well as those employed on zero-hours contracts who only get paid for the hours they work, rather than receive a weekly salary.

MP Maria Miller who chairs the committee said: "The arrival of a new baby puts family finances under extreme pressure yet, despite this, thousands of expectant and new mothers have no choice but to leave their work because of concerns about the safety of their child or pregnancy discrimination.

Shockingly this figure has almost doubled in the last decade, now standing at 54,000.

"There are now record numbers of women in work in the UK. The economy will suffer unless employers modernise their workplace practices to ensure effective support and protection for expectant and new mums," said Miller.

"The government's approach has lacked urgency and bite. It needs to set out a detailed plan outlining the specific actions it will take to tackle this unacceptable level of discrimination. This work must be underpinned by concrete targets and changes to laws and protections to increase compliance by employers to improve women's lives," urged Miller.

Miller backs Britain introducing a system similar to that used in Germany where women can only be made redundant in specified circumstances. There, Germany bosses can only dismiss an employee in very rare cases and they need government approval to do so.

Miller also wants the law extending to ensure women in casual or zero-hours contracts jobs are also given more rights. Endit