Pregnant women in Victoria are being sacked and demoted despite discrimination laws, according to a new study highlighting how pregnancy discrimination is still a significant issue across the state.
Research released from Monash University looked at calls to the employment rights legal service, JobWatch, and found that 14 per cent of calls to the service between 2019 and 2020 were related to pregnancy discrimination.
The most common manifestations of pregnancy discrimination were termination of employment, changes to terms and conditions of employment (like a salary reduction) and changes in employment status, for example from permanent full-time to casual.
On some occasions, women said they agreed to the changes under pressure from their employers.
There were also other issues, including being blocked from taking parental leave, given reduced hours or not being allowed time off to attend medical appointments. Some employers refused to take on board and account for medical advice and directives given to pregnant women.
The study looked at 42 cases from callers to JobWatch, with 19 of the callers reporting they had experienced a change in their terms and conditions of employment. Twelve callers said they had been given a redundancy following the announcement of their pregnancy.
Exclusion from consultation processes about significant changes, and bullying, intimidation or offensive comments were also issues.
The case studies included in the study illustrate some of the experiences women have had when they announced their pregnancy to their employers. In one case, a woman said her employer hired her maternity leave replacement several months early, giving them her office and moving her on to a different team. Another spoke about having shifts cut after announcing her pregnancy, before being told to stop coming in to work and not returning her calls. This same employer changed her contract from full-time to casual without consulting her.
The study also revealed instances where women felt they had no choice but to resign from their jobs, while some women accepted a demotion or change to their condition because they feared not receiving a positive reference from their employer.
The new research follows a 2014 report by the Australian Human Rights Commission that found 49 per cent of new mothers experienced discrimination in the workplace, with 55 per cent experiencing it on more than one occasion.