Maternity rights

Recently, in a survey by OnePoll for Quality Solicitors, 1,000 women with or considering having children were asked for their experiences in their jobs in relation to maternity rights. The survey highlighted the need for more clarity and certainty for both employers and employees and has been summarized in an info-graphic below.

Even if you have been in the company for a while,talking about their maternity policy can be daunting . Only around a third of women asked in the survey spoke to the HR manager at work about maternity rights, the rest choosing to search elsewhere for the answers.

By law you need to tell your employers if you are pregnant 15 weeks before your due date – although quite how you’d hide a 6 month bump in some uniforms I’m not sure! Whenever you decide to tell your employer, they have certain responsibilities to take so it can be beneficial to tell them earlier.

If you are worried about maternity rights there is a really useful employee guide you can look at and, if you’d like to feature the infographic with a summary of the results on your blog, please feel free to grab it!

What are your experiences with maternity rights? Have you had a very understanding employer? Or was your experience a little less pleasant?

What do you think about these figures?  have you had any problems at work whilst pregnant or considering pregnancy? Are you part of the 42% who report being concerned about taking maternity leave?  What kind of pressures do women face in the workplace?