Pregnancy and maternity leave: employment law as a family friend?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2338.00152
• Published date: 01 June 2000
• Author: Paul Lewis
• Date: 01 June 2000

Industrial Relations Journal 31:2

ISSN 0019-8692

Pregnancy and maternity

leave: employment law as a

family friend?

Paul Lewis

Law seeking to provide protection for pregnant workers has

proved to be complex and uncertain. This article aims to

examine the legislation—recently amended—and case law and

to assess their effectiveness. The conclusion is that a coherent

scheme is emerging but that the level of maternity pay

remains problematic.

‘Family-friendly’ policies, such as those giving time off to working parents and pro-

viding flexible working hours, are an established part of personnel management,

especially in large organisations. (See, for example IDS 1997a and 1997b). Increasingly

they are also part of the policy of the European Union and its member states. The

most recent manifestation of this is the EU’s Parental Leave Directive 1996,

implemented in the UK by means of the Employment Relations Act 1999 and the

Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999.

The aim of this article is to investigate a particular area within the family-friendly

category of policies. Some, such as the Editor of Industrial Relations Law Reports,

would say this is a particularly difficult area: ‘It is difficult to think of an area of

employment law which is more complicated than maternity rights.’ (Rubinstein,

1996). The area covers the protection of employment during pregnancy and after

childbirth. The objective of the research reported here is to examine this law and

assess its effectiveness, as it applies in the UK, in providing maternity leave and

protection against dismissal and any other detriment arising from pregnancy. In

doing so, it considers the possible impact of recent changes to maternity rights. The

article is not concerned with the family-friendly area more generally and therefore

does not deal with those recent legal changes not specifically linked to maternity,

such as parental leave. Nor is it the purpose of this article to enter social policy

debates such as those concerning the law’s approach to working women or the law’s

role in altering the balance between work and motherhood.

The research is timeous because recent changes have been made to the law with

the intention of removing some of the legal difficulties in the area. The method of

❒Paul Lewis is Senior Lecturer in Business Law and Director of Teaching Quality at Leeds University

Business School.

Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2000, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA.

130 Industrial Relations Journal