Your other rights in pregnancy

Other rights These rights apply no matter how long you have been employed or how many hours you work per week.

Paid time off for antenatal care
If you are an employee, you have the right to take reasonable time off for your antenatal appointments, including time needed to travel to your clinic or GP, without loss of pay. You should let your employer know when you need time off.

For appointments after the first one, your employer can ask to see your appointment card and a certificate stating that you are pregnant. Antenatal care can include parentcraft and relaxation classes. You may need a letter to show your employer from your GP or midwife, saying that these classes are part of your antenatal care.

Health and safety rights
If you are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breastfeeding, your employer must make sure that the kind of work you do and your working conditions will not put your health or your baby's health at risk. To get the full benefit of this legal protection you must notify your employer in writing that you are pregnant or have recently given birth or are breastfeeding.

Your employer must:

• Carry out a risk assessment at your workplace and do all that is reasonable to remove or reduce the risks found.
• If there are still risks, your employer must alter your working conditions or hours of work to remove the risk.
• If this is not possible or would not avoid the risk, your employer must offer you a suitable alternative job.
• If this is not possible your employer must suspend you on full pay for as long as is necessary to avoid the risks.

If you do night work and your doctor advises that you should stop for health and safety reasons, you have the right to transfer to day work or, if that is not possible, to be suspended on full pay. You must provide a medical certificate.

Breastfeeding
There is some legal protection under health and safety and sex discrimination laws for breastfeeding mothers at work.

Dismissal or unfair treatment
It is against the law for your employer to treat you unfairly, dismiss you or select you for redundancy for any reason connected with pregnancy, childbirth or maternity leave.

If you are dismissed while you are pregnant or during your maternity leave, your employer must give you a written statement of the reasons why. If you are making a claim against your employer, you must put your claim into the Employment Tribunal within three months. You may also have a claim for compensation for sex discrimination.

Redundancy
If you are made redundant because you are pregnant or taking maternity leave, you may have a claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination.

If you are made redundant during maternity leave you have the right to be offered any suitable alternative vacancy before it is offered to any other employees. This special protection is provided by Reg 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999. You do not have to go for interview of assessment procedures if you are on maternity leave and there is a suitable alternative vacancy.

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