Employment Rights Bill bitesize: maternity dismissals

The Employment Rights Bill was published on 10 October 2024, setting out a wide range of ambitious workplace reforms. For an overview of the Bill, see our ‘headlines’ article. 

In this series of ‘bitesize’ articles, we look at different key provisions of the Bill in more detail, consider the implications for employers and explain what the next steps will be.  

Maternity dismissals: what does the Bill say? 

Under current provisions, employees who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and for an ‘additional protected period’ after their return from maternity leave (which lasts for 18 months from the date of birth) have preferential rights in the event of a redundancy situation to be offered any suitable alternative employment. Similar rights apply to those adopting a child, and to those taking a period of statutory family leave: shared parental leave, extended paternity leave following a bereavement (not yet in force) and neonatal care leave (not yet in force). 

The Bill provides for regulations to be made that will extend these existing protections, so that it will include dismissals for any reason (not just redundancy), most likely for the same ‘protected period’. The Government’s apparent intention is to make it unlawful for employers to dismiss employees who have been pregnant and for the period up to six months of their return to work, other than specific circumstances. Similar protections will apply to those taking statutory family leave. 

What does this mean for employers? 

Most employers are already aware of the need to exercise caution when seeking to dismiss an employee who is pregnant or on maternity leave, to avoid the risk of a discrimination claim and in view of the existing right for such employees to be offered any suitable alternative employment in a redundancy situation. 

Once these extended provisions take effect, it will mean that employers will need to take note of the additional protections and ensure that any dismissal during the ‘protected period’ is permitted under the specified exceptions (which have not yet been determined, but we would anticipate are likely to include dismissal for gross misconduct and redundancy where there is no suitable alternative). 

What are the next steps? 

The Bill is expected to receive Royal Assent in 2025, with most reforms expected to take place in 2026. Consultation on draft regulations to implement the extended protection will be necessary. Once this has been published, we will have a better idea of how the protection will work in practice and what ‘specific circumstances’ will permit an employer to dismiss during the protected period.  

Employers will therefore have the opportunity to take advantage of a relatively long lead-in period in order to prepare for the changes and review existing policies and procedures.