Less Hours because of pregnancy

[Sidewinder]

It sounds as though she may be on a zero hours contract.If so, then this arrangement is notoriously precarious, as there is no obligation on either side to either offer work, nor accept it.

 

It is quite right that the employer should remove double handed jobs from the rota, as these very often involve lifting and a Risk Assessment would certainly recommend that these should be handled by staff who are not at additional risk due to pregnancy. It is also understandable however that your partner needs to try and keep the hours up as far as is possible, and without putting her under undue stress - not least because this could have a detrimental effect on Maternity Pay.

 

The zero hours arrangement (if this is the case) unfortunately does not guarantee set hours, and there would be quite an uphill battle in proving entitlement under Custom and Practice, where, as you say the hours already fluctuate wildly, so I would suggest that your girlfriend tries to have a word with the employer and request additional hours where they might be available. Explain that she needs to protect her income as far as possible in order to save for the baby's arrival and hope that they may be able to switch some jobs around.

 

I think you would be hard pressed to make a case for discrimination, and pregnancy is a cause for discrimination on the grounds of Health & Safety - your problem is that there are no fixed hours, and if I am correct, little entitlement to a guaranteed income.

[Sidewinder]

I know exactly what you mean. All I can suggest is to either have a quiet word, or raise a grievance. It should be a relatively straightforward matter to switch some carers' jobs to allow your GF to keep her hours up without cutting anybody else's, but no doubt there will be an argument of some sort against it. Perhaps without making a formal issue of it, the sentence "I feel that I am being punished and am losing money just because I am pregnant" might prick somebody's ears up.....