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LEGAL SPOTLIGHT Maternity protection looks to get stronger as MP’s Bill passes through the Commons 54,000 women a year are forced out of work while on maternity or parental leave A push to secure better protection from maternity discrimination has taken a step forward, after a bill extending maternity protections passed its final reading in the House of Commons. The Private Member’s Bill, called the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill, is led by Labour’s Dan Jarvis, and would put in place greater protections against redundancy from the moment the woman discloses her pregnancy until her child is 18 months old. Currently, women are protected from redundancy only while on maternity or parental leave, and at least 54,000 women a year are pushed out of the workforce after becoming pregnant, according to a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Women who are illegally discriminated against often struggle to bring cases against their employers because of a number of barriers. Jarvis said he had been taken aback when he realised the level of maternity discrimination faced by women and had been inundated by stories such as that of “Natasha”, who was the only member of staff made redundant from her job in 2020 shortly after she had informed her boss, she was pregnant. She then had a miscarriage. He said, “Stories like these, they are obviously heart-breaking, but they are also deeply unjust and unfair. And they shouldn’t be happening in 2023.” Amy Brokenshire, Partner and HR lawyer at George Green LLP told <strong>Prosper</strong>, “The introduction of better legislative protection for women and new parents has been under discussion for some time. “In March 2016, research carried out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed 77% of women reported negative experiences at work related to their pregnancy or maternity. Subsequently, the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) published a report into pregnancy and maternity discrimination that showed that the number of 46 PROSPER SPRING 2023
‘‘ “It is wrong to say that the proposed legislative reforms will mean that employers cannot make women redundant from the point at which their pregnancy disclosed ... but it will extend protections that already exist...” Amy Brokenshire expectant and new mothers forced to leave their jobs had almost doubled since 2005. “In 2017 the Government committed to strengthening the position of women in relation to pregnancy, maternity and redundancy. However, for a multitude of reasons, the implementation of enhanced protections has not been high on the government’s agenda in recent years and so it has taken a while for the new legislation to be progressed. “It is wrong to say that the proposed legislative reforms will mean that employers cannot make women redundant from the point at which their pregnancy is disclosed until the child is 18 months old. “Rather, the proposed new legislation will extend protections that already exist for employees on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave. “Under the current law, where an employee on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave is potentially redundant, they are entitled to be offered any suitable available vacancy with their employer in priority to other potentially redundant employees. “It may be that the employer does not have any suitable alternative vacancies to offer the employee. “However, if they do, and the employer dismisses an employee by reason of redundancy in breach of these rules, the dismissal will be automatically unfair and may also constitute unlawful discrimination. “The special protections that apply to employees during these particular periods of family-related leave are often overlooked by employers. That can prove to be an expensive mistake, should the employee pursue the matter via the Employment Tribunal. “The Government announced in July 2019 that the existing redundancy protections would be extended so they apply from the time an employee notifies her employer of her pregnancy until six months after the end of maternity leave. It also confirmed that these measures would apply to the end of adoption leave and to the end of shared parental leave. . “In addition to extending redundancy protections, the WESC report ‘‘ recommended that the time limit to bring an employment tribunal claim in pregnancy and maternity discrimination cases should be extended from three to six months. This doesn’t appear to be being taken forward in the new Bill, something that has attracted criticism from commentators who do not feel that the reforms go far enough to protect women experiencing pregnancy and maternity discrimination. While there is a broader, ongoing review of the time limits for the submission of discrimination claims, the Government doesn’t appear to have considered it appropriate to change the time limits that apply for pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims in isolation. “By way of an explanation, the Government advised that data had been collected on the pregnancy and maternity discrimination claims presented out of time to the employment tribunal. “It reported that in the period January to June 2018, 25 cases were accepted out of time on the grounds that it was just and equitable to do so, something that the Tribunal has the power to do, and none were rejected. “The Government appears to be relying on there being an increase in awareness of the Tribunal’s power to accept a discrimination claim out of time, in order to encourage women to nevertheless apply to the Tribunal, even if they have missed the three-month deadline for doing so.” Joeli Brearley, the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said the bill was welcome but it had limitations – including the fact that only 1% of women who experience pregnancy or maternity discrimination raise a tribunal claim because of barriers, including a three-month time limit to make a claim. “Extending protections sounds great in theory, but women are forced to use a dysfunctional tribunal system to access them, and so they give up,” she said. “If the Government were really serious about giving women greater access to justice, they would have increased the time limit to raise a tribunal claim and invested in the tribunal system so it can better provide adequate and timely justice for claimants.” Firms miss out as they fail to spend apprentice cash Ahead of last month’s National Apprenticeship Week, new research from City & Guilds, the skills development organisation, together with workplace learning advocates The 5% Club, has revealed that the Government’s apprenticeship levy is not working as it should. Levy-paying employers are using around 55.5% of available funds, and only 4% have used their full levy funding in the past five years – meaning nearly half of the generated funding has not been used by levy-paying employers and risks going to waste. The City & Guilds and The 5% Club are also calling on the Government to reform the apprenticeship levy system to a 50:50 model – with half of funding ring-fenced for apprenticeships, and half freed up for businesses to use to meet their skills needs in a more flexible way. According to the findings, a staggering 96% of UK businesses want to see changes made to the levy while the Freedom of Industry (FOI) found that £3.5b funding nationally allocated to levy-paying employers has expired! (FY 2017-18 and FY 2012-22). Despite the research revealing that only 15% of businesses can recruit the skilled people they need, employers are facing barriers to accessing levy funds which could help to fill skills shortages. According to City & Guilds’ research, carried out amongst 1,000 HR leaders at UK levy-paying business, of those who haven’t used all of their levy funds, 94% report facing at least one barrier to accessing it. 18% say access involves too much bureaucracy or administration 17% state a lack of time to invest 19% cannot commit to the length of time an apprenticeship takes to complete. PROSPER SPRING 2023 47
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Page 4 and 5: CONTACTS Editor Sarah Thompson 0330
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Page 10 and 11: NEWS Apprentices backed to ‘futur
Page 12 and 13: NEWS Vishwas and Olu Students celeb
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Page 22 and 23: IN PROFILE: DAVE ROBERTS, MD, WOLVE
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Page 49 and 50: making workplace cultures more age
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