Pre-Pregnancy and Pregnancy employer toolkit | Equality and Human Rights Commission

Downloads and date planner

We hope that you find our Employer toolkit useful in ensuring that good communication happens before, during and after an employee's return to work. We have created a bank of pre-prepared letters, check lists and ready made policy templates for your HR colleagues and line managers. Keep on top of key dates when you are advised to remind your employee of their rights under equality law with our date calculator.

Maternity Date Planner

Calculate maternity dates

Pre-pregnancy downloads

Find your legal obligations to new parents and parents-to-be (including adopters) in our handy checklist and guidance for employers.

Pregnancy downloads

The documents below outline the key steps employers should take at key milestones in an employee's pregnancy or adoption preparations. This includes legal entitlements to time off, health and safety checks and pre-prepared letters you can send to your employee to notify things like the end of Maternity Pay.

Video case study

Northern Rail talk about how they managed pregnancy effectively in the workplace.

Case Study

Scenario:

Susan works in a department store. The work involves standing up for most of the day. She provides written notification of her pregnancy. The employer's workplace risk assessment has identified that standing for long periods can pose a risk to the health and safety of a pregnant employee.

What steps should you take?

Her employer should make reasonable adjustments to her working conditions to avoid that risk by providing a chair so that she is not standing for long periods. Susan should be allowed to sit down to do her work whenever possible during her pregnancy - even if colleagues are not provided with chairs. Her employer could offer other duties that do not involve standing all day.