How can HR prevent discrimination against pregnant women?

Workplace discrimination against pregnant women, particularly those who have returned to work after maternity leave is still rife, according to new research from the University of South Australia.

The study found 60% of new mothers returning to work said their opinions were often ignored, they were given unmanageable workloads and they felt excluded.

“Around 30% of the sample received no information about their leave entitlements that are coming up,” Dr Rachael Potter, research fellow at the University of South Australia, told HRD Australia.

“And there was pressure for people to hide the fact that we're pregnant – almost a quarter thought they had to hide their pregnant belly.”

The research was led by Potter and involved a survey of more than 550 women and new caregivers. It’s the first national review of pregnant and working parents since 2014, highlighting a lack of progress that has been made over the years.

So what can HR teams do to better support these employees?

High percentage of new mothers made redundant

Additional findings from the study included 22% of women having their jobs altered against their wishes and 38% reporting negative or offensive remarks for taking time off work to care for a sick child.

Plus, some women reported that they were made redundant, didn’t have their contract renewed, weren’t granted leave for medical appointments and were denied toilet breaks during their pregnancy.

For Potter, the findings of women being made redundant were “very concerning”.

“There was pressure for women to return to work earlier than they wanted or later than they wanted but also that threat of redundancy emerged,” she said.

“People felt like their job was going to be threatened if they didn't return or maybe they were made casual or didn't have their contract renewed. As we looked at people on leave and returning to work, there were high percentages of people who'd been made redundant. But even if they weren't made redundant, they still had their job completely changed or cast below their competency level.”

How HR teams can support pregnant workers

While Potter acknowledged that there were positive findings during her research – with some women granted flexible work – on the other hand, some women’s partners did not have leave or access to flexible work.

Potter suggested that HR teams consider offering flexibility to partners if there is an opportunity to do so.

“So it's not all just placed upon the primary caregiver,” she said. “That would make equality much more achievable.”

On July 1, the federal government rolled out a new paid parental leave scheme, where both parents will be able to claim up to 20 weeks of paid leave to use between them. Single parents, however, can access the full amount of parental leave pay.

Complementing these were changes to the unpaid leave scheme, where both parents can take up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave at any time within 24 months of their child’s birth or placement.

While Potter believes the changes are a step in the right direction, she said it also raises another issue.

“Obviously there's a gender pay gap here in a lot of cases,” she said. “Women in particular, maybe they want to split the leave but there’s still that pay gap where it's actually not going to be financially the best choice for the family if that happened.”

Another key element for HR teams to consider is accommodating people’s needs: from offering suitable breastfeeding facilities to adjusting expectations.

“If someone comes back to work with a child that's sick, [it’s about] taking that into consideration and maybe helping management with adjusting deadlines or expectations,” she said. “We found that a lot of people were still expected to complete their work in the same amount of time even if they had to care for sick children.”

Communication key during maternity leave

Ultimately, Potter emphasised the importance of having clear communication with employees before they go on maternity leave to manage expectations during the leave and when they return.

“A lot of people when they're on leave, they just reported feeling completely cut off from the workplace, and just had no communication,” she said. “When the person who is pregnant is about to go on leave, there has to be that real discussion about ‘What do you want when you’re on leave. Do you want us to keep in touch? Do you want us not [to]?’

“Because it's a bit of a divide there were people felt like they were abandoned and they wanted to still feel in contact. And even if not, when they come back to work, their job shouldn't really completely disappear, especially… leadership positions disappearing for women.”