Pregnancy and the work environment.

i completely disagree.

Irish Health and Safety Legislation is based around the principle of 'reasonably practicable'.

An employer needs to do what is reasonable in every circumstance.

Is it reasonable that this employer will not allow a heavily pregnant employee to sit at her workstation because he does not want his customers to see his staff sitting at work. it is unreasonable.

in addition is it reasonable for a heavily pregnant employee to travel to a stockroom whic is downstairs, at least 30 times a day? I assume these trips to the stock room involve carrying stock? is this reasonable? absolutely not. Under no circumstances should a pregnant lady, never mind a heavily pregnant lady be carrying stock, or carrying out any manual handling activity she does not feel comfortable with.

At this stage the employer could be prosecuted for failure to carry out both a Manual handling risk assessment as well as an on-going Pregnant employee risk assessment.

Has your wife been given manual handling training? Then he could also be prosecuted under this heading as she is undergoing MH tasks throughout the day.

I would certainly be taking this action further, its ridiculous in this day and age and with the amount of legislation covering Pregnant Employees this is going on. :mad:
 
Irrespective of the fact that your wife is pregnant best practice from an ergonomics and manual handling perspective would be to always offer employees the choice of sitting or standing when working if this is possible. Just look at the major supermaket chains were the guys on the registers have a choise, some will be sitting, some will be standing. Just because a piece of equipment was never there to begin with does not mean that it should not be provided when required............ahh sure nobody ever got their hand trapped in that machine so we dont need a guard - Ask Smurfit if that attitude goes down well with the HSA and the courts (€1m fine for two workplace accidents involving same machine).
 
crughan i completely agree with you

If you read the HSA guidance and also HSE guidance (best practice in Ireland) in reation to pregnant employees, the guidance will keep reminding the reader that each pregnancy is different, no two pregnant employees will feel the same. while one will feel quite comfortable working right up the the final few days before the birth, another may need to begin leave at 7 months.

Because of these differences all tasks, adjustements to working practices, work stations and any necessary changes or controls which may need to be brought in are evaluated on the basis of a comprehensive risk assessment. This risk assessment must be done in conjunction with the employee and reviewed regularly.

I really hope you both get this sorted out, Im sure you have enough going on with out this unreasonable so and so refusing to let your wife sit down. its ridiculous really it really infuriates me i have to say!
 
I suppose I am leaning towards more of the devils advocate as there are plenty advocating for the pregnant lady here - the suggestion that the boss does not want customers to see a pregnant lady on a chair is possibly bias but it does lead me to suspect that the boss is not well versed in H&S law and so needs to be introduced to it.
However, if you employ a person to go to the stock room 30 times a day and stand at a counter at the busy times serving customers (thinking of say a make up counter one cannot be on a chair when reaching to shelves etc,) well if as assessment says she should not be doing any manual handling or standing for periods, is she "fit for work"? the work she was hired to do. Shoud you employ someone else to do her job while paying her to be on "light duties" effectively costing the company double?
Just a view from the other side.
 
nelly said:
The employer is not breaking the law by not providing a chair AFAIK. a chair was never there to begin with and an employer may argue that it is not suitable (not enough space for example). If the employee cannot do the job without modifications to the workspace then i would say she may fall into the "not fit for work" which she was hired to do. Hense she should take a softly softly assertive approach before informing HSA etc.
just my take
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Not having any chairs on the shop floor is apparently 'head office policy'.
Is the gist of your message that sales people should not get pregnant or people that want to have children shouldn't be sales people???... both wrong in my view and equal opportunity law would suggest otherwise dont you think?
 
AndyDub said:
Not having any chairs on the shop floor is apparently 'head office policy'.
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Might i suggest you request a reason for this policy - perhaps a risk assessmetn or safety statement before implying that there should be a chair provided wherever a pregnant person works.
AndyDub said:
Is the gist of your message that sales people should not get pregnant or people that want to have children shouldn't be sales people???...
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What i am saying is that people are in business to be in business and this means they must make decisions taking legal restraints - H&S too into consideration too. If there are rasonable reasons why chairs cannot be placed at counters then employees must take that on board too.
AndyDub said:
both wrong in my view and equal opportunity law would suggest otherwise dont you think?
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I absolutely agree.

just an asside: Another disadvantage to being preganant and out of the workforce for 6-8 months at a time is the fact that male collegues working teh same job who do not have to take this time can clock up this to get the edge over you at an interview for promotion etc. This is legal and to my mind also unfair to pregnant women who through no fault of their own have to take time off to have their children or a particularly tough pregnancy. So I add this just to say that life is not fair, it is what it is.
 
Nelly, I take your point and as somebody who has previously provided a lot of consultancy to major retail chains the same question regarding 'fit for work' is often asked by them. However in this case the employee would appear to be 'fit for work', but her productivity is reduced. This is the exact type of scenario that the maternity protection legislation was designed for in order to prevent pregnant employees losing their jobs or having their pay and conditions reduced.

In reality putting a pregnant employee on h&s leave is fraught with dangers from an Equality and IR point of view. Pregnant employees in Ireland are 'bullet proof' and in reality any changes in their working conditions that can be made to accommodate them should be made. You would be a long time arguing to an equality tribunal that not providing a chair for a pregnant employee to sit on was a reasonable course of action, especially if her obgny stated the need for this in writing.

As you say in this case it would appear to be ignorance on the part of her manager or her parent company (I am guessing that they are UK or NI based on my experience) of her rights that may be causing the problems. I have come across worse cases of poor treatment of pregnant employees though....in one case I dealt with a branch manager had told a pregnant employee that pregnancy was a condition not an illness and to get over it and keep doing her job....not a very clever thing to say in this day and age.

Safety legislation can cause some smaller companies problems in scenarios such as this but it is there to protect all employees, not just pregnant ones. Always ask yourself, 'would I want my mother / sister / wife / gf treated in this way?
 
cruchan09, thanks for your reply which i do think has kinda put a blanace on what i suggested in earlier posts, ie Doctors note and a bit of a softly softly approach armed with the Preganncy H&S law knowledge.
 
In my experience it could be, as I said earlier pregnany employees are 'bullet proof' under Irish legislation.
 
cruchan09 said:
In my experience it could be, as I said earlier pregnany employees are 'bullet proof' under Irish legislation.
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I might need that actually. Two days ago she had a consultants appointment, her assistant manager told her she'd have to change it at the last minute. Yesterday my fiance's maternity cover started work, coincidentally the shop manager said to my fiance that she should leave 2 weeks earlier (unpaid) before the official maternity leave starts, my fiance said no thanks as we need the money to pay the hospital, afterwhich he said she should change to a public hospital if she cant afford it. I am pretty sure he cannot say that, any opinions?
 
Well you need to give "4 weeks' written notice" before you take it.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/c...conditions/leave-and-holidays/maternity_leave

If you need further information about maternity leave you should contact the Equality Authority.
If you have a dispute with your employer about maternity leave you may make a complaint to a Rights Commissioner using the [broken link removed]
At least 6 weeks before your baby's due date you should apply to the Maternity Benefit Section of the Department of Social and Family Affairs for Maternity Benefit.

Where to apply

Equality Authority

Line 1:
2 Clonmel St
Line 5:
Dublin 2
County:
DUBLIN 02
Country:
IRELAND
Tel:
+353 (0)1 417 3333
Locall:
1890 245 545
Fax:
+353 1 417 3331
Homepage:
www.equality.ie
Email:
info@equality.ie
Wheelchair Access:
Unknown
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From the 1994 Maternity Protection Act:
15.—(1) For the purpose of receiving ante-natal or post-natal care or both, an employee shall be entitled to time off from her work, without loss of pay (this was not changed in the 2004 Maternity Protection Act)

It is unreasonable for your employer to ask you to change ante natal visits with little or no notice. However, you are supposed to give them two weeks notice in writing of all ante natal visits, so they could argue that they did not get this notice and that your visit was a surprise to them and they had not planned for your absence. Obviously they can ask you to do it as a 'favour' to them and if there was a good working relationship then this would not be such an issue. However in this case it sounds like the pregnant employee is being set up for a constructive dismissal. This is further shown by the request to take an additional two weeks unpaid maternity leave - that is constructive dismissal. You need to talk to your union rep or better still contact the Equality Authority about this ASAP. This has changed from a safety issue to an employment practices issue. Record details of all conversations and confrontations with management, and make sure you note any witnessess, the dates and any phrases used which you think are unacceptable (e.g. comments about your healthcare staus!).

Do not let them away with this.


 
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