The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act

Under the current law, those on Maternity Leave, Shared Parental Leave or Adoption Leave have special protection in a redundancy situation. They have the right to be offered a suitable alternative job role, if one is available, before being made redundant. This gives employees on Maternity Leave, Shared Parental Leave or Adoption Leave the priority for redeployment opportunities over other employees that are also being made redundant.

The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act extends the previous period of protection against redundancy for those on Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave or Shared Parental Leave to possibly six months following their return to work.

Who will be protected?

In addition to those on Maternity Leave, the Act extends protection to:

• A pregnant employee who is in “a protected period of pregnancy”
• An employee who has recently suffered a miscarriage
• Maternity returners
• Adoption Leave returners
• Shared Parental Leave returners

At present, further regulations are required which will set out how this new protection will be implemented.

If you would like further guidance on this topic, we would be happy to meet with you for a chat so please book a call with Caroline.

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