Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004

Can you let someone go before they actually start maternity leave. Or ar they protected in some way. Or are they treated the same as normal employee until the first day of their maternity leave. If the reasons are nothing to do with the pegnancy.For example the company has ceased trading. I'm thinking of the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004.

Pregnant women have to be treated the same as everyone else. If everyone else is being let go then treat them the same and let them go too. As long as it's within 16 weeks (I think) of the due date they still get the SW benefit. In the only case I've come across the company gave an inflated redundancy payout to the pregnant employee because of the fact that discrimination laws aside, there is little chance of a pregnant woman getting another job. This was IT and staff tend to be hired as needed in that industry so she wouldn't get a job while pregnant.