54,000 new mothers lose their jobs due to maternity discrimination each year. That equals one in every nine new mothers in the workplace forced to leave their jobs during pregnancy, maternity leave or return to work.  Many women are forced out through discriminatory redundancies or face redundancies which are just unfair.

In January 2017, the Government gave a commitment to review redundancy protections.  A year later, women are still waiting for action.

We are calling for the UK to adopt the German model in which pregnant women and new mothers can only be made redundant in specified circumstances.  This approach, recommended by the Women and Equalities Select Committee, would provide effective protection against the unfair treatment commonly experienced by pregnant women and new mothers.

We are calling for reporting on maternity retention rates to be included in mandatory gender pay gap reporting.  Disclosing the number of pregnant women and new mothers who resign or lose their jobs makes it easier to identify the employers who are failing to treat women fairly.  Bad employers shouldn’t be able to hide their bad practice.