Employers admit pregnancy bias
Over half of employers admit to considering whether a woman of child-bearing age will become pregnant before hiring them, according to a survey.
The poll of 1,100 company directors and personnel managers conducted by the Employment Law Advisory Services, said 52% would take into account the age of the woman and whether she had recently got married in deciding whether she was likely to get pregnant.
Some 76% would not recruit a woman if they knew she would become pregnant within six months of starting a job and 86% said they would feel "cheated" if a new employee announced they were pregnant.
The research was prompted because ELAS has noted an increase in the number of cases it has been dealing with which are related to pregnancy and new employees, including cases where women were asked if they planned to start a family, a practice which is banned by employment law.
They were also dealing with cases where women were offered a job which was later withdrawn when it was found that the woman was pregnant. 68% of those polled said they would like to ask if a woman had plans to start a family at interview. Only 5% had knowingly hired a pregnant woman.
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City lawyer claims discrimination
A City lawyer is claiming a record £19m damages from her former employers for sex discrimination.
The woman, Gill Switalski, says she left her £140,000 p.a. job as head of the legal team at F & C Assets Management last year because she faced criticism from her manager when she opted for a flexible work pattern to care for her two disabled sons. One has cerebral palsy and the other has Asperger’s.
Speaking at an employment tribunal this week, her lawyer Suzanne McKie says Switalski had had positive appraisals. It was claimed that her problems only began when Marrack Tonkin took over as her manager.
Her lawyer claims that Switalski was barred from a senior management group, despite her years of experience. All the members were male. She also claims Switalski was asked to provide a death certificate when her mother died so that the company could claim back insurance on a cancelled business flight she had been due to catch.
Switalski had taken sick leave after a life-threatening illness. Her husband earns less than £30,000. An employment tribunal has already ruled in her favour, but F & C Assets Management has challenged that decision. The tribunal reserved judgement. Read more
Mother 'should be paid to stay at home'
Mothers should be paid to stay at home, according to a report by a right-wing thinktank launched by a Conservative spokesperson.
The Policy Exchange thinktank says Labour has encouraged women to go back to work after having children by promoting tax credits and other benefits, but in fact most mothers want to work part-time or not at all, particularly mothers of children under five.
The report suggests that women should be paid money which they can choose to use on nursery care, informal care through grandparents and others or to stay at home and that this can be paid for if subsidised nursery places for three and four year olds are scrapped.
The report says women are more worried about their children’s happiness than the costs of childcare so making childcare cheaper will not make any difference. The Government argues that allowing money to be used on informal care could lead to fraud and nursery experts say the proposals could undermine the regulation of care. Read more
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