“Thousands of pregnant women and new mothers continue to face discrimination at work.
“In the last two years Citizens Advice has helped with 58% more maternity leave problems. Too often women find their working hours are reduced, or they are moved over to a zero hour contract after they tell their boss they are pregnant.
“We welcome the committee’s call for the government to do more to help women facing this kind of discrimination. Maternity protections are part of people’s employment rights but responsibility for enforcing these is poorly resourced and spread across a wide range of agencies, from HMRC to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. This confusing landscape means some some bad bosses are getting away with treating their employees unfairly.
“There is an opportunity for the government to consider bringing together the expertise of all current labour market enforcement functions into one well resourced effective body to investigate bad practice. This will make it much easier for people to seek redress if they are being denied any of their employment rights.”