Maternity and Risk Assessments
by Liam
Regulation 16 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers employing women of child bearing age to conduct a risk assessment in respect of risks posed to new or expectant mothers.
It is established law that failing to comply with these provisions may amount to sex discrimination.
In Home Farm Trust Ltd v Nnachi the EAT held that a woman who notified her employer on 9 May 2005 that she was pregnant had been discriminated against in circumstances where a risk assessment was not conducted until 22 May 2005 owing to the absence through illness of a member of management.
The EAT commented that “an employer should not wait until an employee is pregnant before making an assessment of the risks by reason of her condition to a new and expectant mother. An employer should have such an assessment in place for each undertaking where the person’s work include women of child bearing age.”
The lessons to be learned from this case are that if you employ women of child bearing age, a risk assessment should be conducted and in place even if no women are actually pregnant. Failing to do so could result in a finding of sex discrimination!
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Hi, I hope your site is the right place to ask this question; I own a small business and can not really afford to have my employees on leave for months at a time. Do I have to provide maternity, paternity and medical leave? It would be interesting what your readers think.
http://www.lemonshell.com/legal/employmentlaw.aspx
Gary LemonShell said at March 23rd, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave - yes you have to give your employees these types of leave if they qualify. However, Statutory Maternity Pay can be reclaimed in full or in part (in the form of reduced NICs). Small employers can actually reclaim more than the amount they pay to their employees. Larger employers can reclaim slightly less than the full amount).
Sick pay - you have to pay Statutory Sick Pay as a minimum. SSP is paid from the 4th day of sickness for 28 weeks. You do not have to pay full pay for prolonged periods of absence (or for any sickness absence).
Liam said at March 25th, 2008 at 9:59 am