Last month the government announced it was backing a law to provide pregnant women and new parents greater protection against redundancy.
Under the Maternity and Parental Leave Etc Regulations 1999 ("MAPLE") if a redundancy situation arises during an employee's maternity leave, the employee is entitled (in preference to other potentially redundant employees) to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy where one is available. This protection ends once the employee has returned to work and there are concerns some employers simply wait until an employee returns from maternity leave to make redundancies.
It is intended that new regulations will:
- Extend redundancy protection so that it applies to pregnant women as well as new parents returning to work from a relevant form of leave.
- Apply the MAPLE protections through an expanded period from when a woman tells her employer she is pregnant until 18 months after the birth. The 18-month window ensures that a mother returning from a year of maternity leave can receive 6 months additional redundancy protection. The 18-month window will also apply to maternity leave and shared parental leave. Whilst the government announcement makes reference to an 18-month window, the bill itself does not specify how long the extended protection period will last. We will have to wait for further information in this regard.
The government's announcement can be found here. It is very unlikely that these changes will come into force next year, particularly given the current issues facing the Conservative government.