Q: We employed someone two weeks ago to clean our clients site for two hours in a morning, four days per week. This person has so far not completed a full weeks work. She has only just informed us that she is six weeks pregnant and having bad cases of morning sickness. The site is remote and we cannot get temporary cover at such short notice. She is on a 3 month probationary period. What are my options?
Jun 14 2007
Answered by: Peter Done Ask a question
Pregnant workers are specifically protected against less favourable treatment due to reasons of being pregnant. Therefore, you would be flying in the face of employment law if you elected to treat her less favourably for that reason.
So we come to the fact that she is not turning up for work at the agreed times and you are probably wondering whether this is an acceptable reason for dismissing her. Well, again she will be protected by the same legislation because if her absence is due to reasons of pregnancy as you say, then to dismiss her for that reason would be classed as discrimination on grounds of pregnancy. On the positive side, morning sickness as a symptom doesn’t usually last for long.
Your employee's maternity leave may start sooner than the date they intended if she is absent for a pregnancy related reason in the last 4 weeks of her pregnancy or gives birth early, but clearly that is some way off as yet, and so you should treat the absence as sickness absence until then.
If she qualifies for Statutory Sick Pay which she is unlikely to do on the facts you have given me, then she could seek help from JobCentre Plus. Once she discusses her entitlements with JobCentre Plus she may find that she is better off not working and volunteer to leave.
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