Our current legislation, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, has served us well. However, we see an urgent necessity to revise and augment its provisions to safeguard not only the working individuals but also the yet-to-be-born offspring of expectant mothers in the workplace. We urge the Parliament to make the penalties sterner for non-compliance.

At the time I was pregnant, my own health and the health of my unborn son suffered due to inadequate lawful protection. Today, my son carries the lifelong mark of a systemic injustice that could have been avoided.

Each year, many women endure a similar fate.  

In 2019, the TUC and Maternity Action warned that employers are not doing enough to protect pregnant women at work.  The organisations published a new guide that said there are clear laws in place to protect new and expectant mothers. But warned that many bosses don’t know what they should be doing or were ignoring their legal responsibilities.

Moreover, the Act currently inadequately addresses specific risks posed to pregnant employees and their unborn children. A survey by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that two in five (41%) expectant mothers felt that there was a risk to their health or welfare at work during pregnancy. 

Furthermore, a recent systemic review of 38 publications, looked at various risk factors and found:

'In the long term, it has been observed that mothers who reported having job stress during pregnancy were 1.91 times more likely (95% CI 1.21–3.07) to have a child diagnosed as having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder before 8 years of age'

'the condition with the strongest association with miscarriage was self-perceived high levels of stress (RR 2.4; 95% CI 0.2–28.3), making it the main factor for miscarriage and affecting miscarriage much more than chemical exposure.'

'there was a strong linear relationship between occupational classification and the possible development of hypertensive disorders, and their data showed that employed women had a clear risk of about 33% higher than housewives.'1

Additionally, a report published last year, around broader aspects of women’s health in the workplace, described a ‘crisis of mismanagement.’2

This intolerable situation indicates the urgent need to amend the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Our proposition is twofold: 

Firstly, we need to ensure stricter penalties for non-compliance with the Act to cover loopholes that may compromise the health and safety of employees. 

Secondly, the Act must be amended to specifically state the necessary provisions to safeguard the health of expectant mothers, with additional focus on their unborn children. This would ensure that employers make the necessary adjustments to tasks, working hours or provide suitable alternative work.

Justice for those affected by workplace negligence starts here. Let's amend the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure a safer working environment for all. We must protect our future generations while they are still in the womb. It is time to rise above the inadequacies of outdated laws and instil a sense of security and faith in our workplaces. 

Please, sign this petition and help change the future for the better.

 

References:

1(Corchero-Falcón MDR, Gómez-Salgado J, García-Iglesias JJ, Camacho-Vega JC, Fagundo-Rivera J, Carrasco-González AM. Risk Factors for Working Pregnant Women and Potential Adverse Consequences of Exposure: A Systematic Review. Int J Public Health. 2023 Feb 16;68:1605655. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1605655. PMID: 36874222; PMCID: PMC9977819.). 

 

2 A report by the British Occupational Hygiene Society, the Chartered Society for Worker Health Protection, August 2023.