Your employer’s duty to risk-assess for pregnancy starts before you even announce it.
“The duty to risk-assess for pregnancy-related risks arises before you announce a pregnancy, not after.”
Your employer's duty to risk-assess for pregnancy-related risks starts the moment they have women of childbearing age on staff, not once you've told them you're pregnant.
- Employers with any female staff of childbearing age already need to think about pregnancy-related risks in the workplace. This is not something that only starts once you make an announcement.
- If you tell your employer you are pregnant and no risk assessment follows, that gap can itself be discrimination, not just a health and safety failing.
- This covers risks you might not expect, such as strong smells triggering morning sickness, as well as more obvious ones like heavy lifting or standing for long periods.
The situation
Ms Day worked in a sandwich shop that also involved roasting chickens. After she became pregnant, she developed severe morning sickness, made worse by the smell of food at work, and eventually went on sick leave. When her employer stopped paying her, she brought a claim, arguing that her employer should have carried out a health and safety risk assessment covering pregnancy.
What the tribunal found
The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the duty to carry out a pregnancy-related risk assessment does not wait until an employee tells her employer she is pregnant. It arises automatically once an employer has women of childbearing age on the payroll doing work that could carry a pregnancy-related risk. Failing to carry out that assessment was itself direct sex discrimination.
Day v T Pickles Farms Ltd. [1999] IRLR 217. Employment Appeal Tribunal. 1999.