In the wake of recent press coverage highlighting the vast discrepancy between how employers believe they are treating pregnant employees and how such employees feel that they are actually being treated, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a national campaign to encourage knowledge sharing and best practice in relation to pregnancy and maternity workplace issues.

The "Working Forward" campaign, which is being spearheaded by leading companies such as Barclays, Ford, Royal Mail, BT Group and the Nationwide Building Society, is aimed at making workplaces "the best they can be for pregnant women and new mothers" although fathers, and hopefully employers, will also benefit from the initiative.

Employers are asked to sign up and pledge their support on a voluntary basis. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has identified four key areas that can make a real difference to the experiences of employers and employees alike. Employers are recommended to take action in as little as two of these areas as a starting point. The four areas are:

  1. Demonstrating leadership from the top down: emphasising the importance of awareness of gender diversity and equal opportunity policies at all levels of the business and engendering a culture which is based on such awareness so that it becomes engrained in every aspect of the business;
  2. Ensuring confident employees: who feel able to talk about pregnancy and maternity-related issues without fear of discrimination or detriment;
  3. Training and supporting line managers: so that they can offer the support necessary to all employees who have, are going to have or are considering their options in terms of childcare responsibilities; and
  4. Offering flexible working practices: we have already seen a change in, for example, the flexible working regime to provide more employees with access to such rights, along with the introduction of shared parental leave. However, the Working Forward campaign stresses the importance of building upon such legislative changes and ensuring that flexibility is encouraged in practice and that employers realise the benefits that can flow from more flexible and agile working.

Whilst action in only two of these areas is suggested at first, it seems that once action is taken in even just one of these areas, positive steps relevant to the remaining three areas will flow from this.

The campaign forms part of a broader recognition of the issues and possible discrimination facing pregnant women and new mothers and it seems that steps are, finally, being taken to address such inequality. For example, the House of Commons Justice Select Committee has also recommended a review of the three-month time limit for bringing a pregnancy-related discrimination claim. Whilst it is hard to determine at what point this additional protection should end, it is hoped that such an extension will provide further support for women in the workplace and, most importantly, reinforce the importance of equality for all, in all aspects of employment.

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