Prosper Spring

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“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
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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