Anomalies persist in the protection of pregnant women against dismissal, as Charles Pigott explains
- According to current domestic case law, pregnant women continue to enjoy weaker protection while still at work compared to those already on maternity leave.
- An opportunity to address this anomaly at a EU level was recently passed up by the European Court of Justice.
In Really Easy Car Credit v Thompson UKEAT 0197/17/0301 (unreported) the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that an employer must have actual knowledge of an employee’s pregnancy for a claim for pregnancy-related automatically unfair dismissal to succeed. It has also reiterated the orthodox position that an employer is not obliged to revisit a decision to dismiss once it becomes of aware of the pregnancy.
Domestic law
Leaving aside the provisions of the Equality Act relating to maternity and sex discrimination, the relevant law applying in Britain can be found in a combination of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA) and the Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/3312) (MPL).
Under regulation 20 MPL (which defines the scope of section 99 ERA) an
