Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination: Your Rights at Work

Being treated badly at work because you are pregnant, or while you are on maternity leave, is one of the situations the law protects most strongly - and one where many people do not realise how much protection they actually have. Maternity discrimination is unlawful from your first day in the job, it does not need a two-year qualifying period, and the compensation is not capped. This guide explains what counts, the "protected period" that frames it, the special redundancy rules, and how a claim works.

What is pregnancy and maternity discrimination?

Pregnancy and maternity discrimination means being treated unfavourably because of your pregnancy, because of an illness caused by your pregnancy, or because you are taking or have taken maternity leave. It is set out in section 18 of the Equality Act 2010.

There is an important difference between this and most other discrimination claims. For ordinary direct discrimination you usually have to show you were treated less favourably than someone else would have been - a comparator. For a section 18 pregnancy and maternity claim you do not. You only have to show the treatment was unfavourable and that it was because of pregnancy or maternity. That makes these claims, in principle, more straightforward to frame.

Examples of unfavourable treatment include being dismissed, demoted, denied training or a promotion, having your hours cut, being disciplined for pregnancy-related sickness absence, or being passed over in a redundancy exercise - where pregnancy or maternity is the reason.

The "protected period"

Section 18 protection applies during a defined window called the protected period. It begins when your pregnancy starts and ends:

• when your maternity leave ends or you return to work, if you are entitled to maternity leave; or
• two weeks after the end of the pregnancy, if you are not entitled to maternity leave.

Unfavourable treatment that happens during the protected period, and is because of the pregnancy or maternity, is what section 18 covers. Treatment after the protected period that is still connected to your pregnancy or maternity leave can often be brought as ordinary sex or other discrimination instead - the protection does not simply vanish, the legal label changes.

It is a day-one right

You do not need any minimum length of service. Pregnancy and maternity discrimination protection applies from your first day of employment - this is one of the genuine day-one rights, unlike ordinary unfair dismissal, which currently still needs two years' continuous service.

Dismissal is protected twice over. As well as the Equality Act, section 99 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 makes a dismissal automatically unfair if the reason (or principal reason) is connected with pregnancy, childbirth, or maternity leave - again with no qualifying period.

Redundancy during pregnancy and maternity leave

A common misconception is that you cannot be made redundant while pregnant or on maternity leave. You can - but only through a genuine redundancy run fairly, and with extra protection layered on top.

During the protected period your employer must offer you any suitable alternative vacancy that exists, ahead of other employees who are also at risk. This is a priority right, not just a right to be considered. The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023, and the regulations that brought it into force in April 2024, extended this protected window: it now runs from the point you tell your employer you are pregnant through to 18 months after the birth.

If you are selected for redundancy because you are pregnant or on maternity leave, or you are not offered a suitable alternative role that existed, that is unlawful. For how statutory redundancy pay itself is worked out, see our redundancy pay guide.

What you can claim

If you bring a successful claim, an employment tribunal can award:

• Loss of earnings - past and future, with no statutory cap (unlike the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal)
• Injury to feelings - a separate award for the upset and distress, assessed against the Vento bands, which run from lower-band awards for one-off incidents to higher-band awards for a sustained campaign
• Interest on the awards

Because discrimination compensation is uncapped and includes injury to feelings, the value of a strong claim can be significantly higher than people expect.

How to bring a claim

The route is the same as other tribunal claims:

1. Raise it internally first where you can - a grievance creates a record and may resolve things. See how to write a grievance letter.
2. Start ACAS Early Conciliation - this is a mandatory step before you can lodge a tribunal claim.
3. Lodge the ET1 within the time limit if conciliation does not resolve it.

Do not miss the deadline

The time limit is the part that catches people out. You generally have three months less one day from the act you are complaining about - or from the last act, where there is a series of linked acts - to start ACAS Early Conciliation. Where the discrimination is ongoing, the clock may run from the most recent incident, but you should never rely on that; treat the earliest possible date as your deadline. Full detail is in our tribunal deadlines guide.

In practice, missing the deadline almost always bars the claim, and tribunals only rarely extend time in discrimination cases where it is "just and equitable" to do so.

Key takeaway

If you have been treated unfavourably because of pregnancy or maternity, you are in one of the strongest-protected positions in employment law: protection from day one, no comparator needed, uncapped compensation, and priority redundancy rights. The thing that decides cases is preparation - a clear account of what happened, when, and the documents that show it, all filed before the deadline.

_This article is legal information, not legal advice. The right outcome depends on the specific facts of your case._