This week, the House of Lords is having its first reading of the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill. The bill makes provision about protection from redundancy during or after pregnancy or after periods of maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
The current law only provides protection from redundancy to employees who are actually on maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave by obliging employers to offer suitable alternative employment to them, where such a role is available with the employer or an associated employer.
This bill has been introduced as a Private Members Bill, but follows on from a recommendation in the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices in July 2017.
The bill enables the Secretary of State to make regulations - so we don’t have the details yet of what precisely the protection will provide. However, the government committed in 2019 to legislate to extend redundancy protection from the date an employee notifies the employer of her pregnancy until six months after the end of leave.
Frances Rollin