Pregnancy Discrimination Campaign

EDM number 635 in 2004-05, proposed by Vera Baird on 01/02/2005.

That this House welcomes the Equal Opportunities Commission's campaign against pregnancy discrimination; notes with alarm new research indicating that, each year, around 30,000 working women are either sacked, made redundant or are treated so badly that they feel they have to leave their jobs due to their pregnancies; further notes that in a survey of 1000 women who had been pregnant at work, almost half said that they experienced some form of disadvantageous treatment because of their pregnancy and a fifth were disadvantaged financially; observes that there are 441,000 women who work while pregnant each year; strongly believes that the UK economy needs the skills and experience of pregnant women in the workplace and women returning from maternity leave; and calls on the Government to act to put a stop to pregnancy discrimination by supporting pregnant women at work and their employers.

This motion has been signed by a total of 114 MPs.