The USDAW has published a report of a survey of women’s experiences of pregnancy at work in the retail sector.
The retail sector is the second largest employer of women in the UK. Two thirds of retail staff are women. Usdaw’s survey was initiated to support the ongoing Equal Opportunities Commission’s inquiry into pregnancy discrimination at work ‘Pregnant and Productive’. With nearly 200,000 women members Usdaw has an important contribution to make to this investigation.
Over 1,200 women took part in the survey. Many of them felt supported and valued by their employer during their pregnancy. However many more women describe a total lack of support and discrimination by employers.
The main findings are:

• Almost a quarter of women (22.8%) are not getting paid time off to attend ante-natal care.
• At least one in ten women (12.7%) are losing earnings by being asked to make up time spent attending ante-natal classes. 
•  Seven out of ten women (71.09%) either didn’t get or didn’t know whether they’d had a risk assessment. 
•  40% of women told us that their employer either did nothing or made an unhelpful suggestion, when they brought to their employer’s attention the fact that they were experiencing difficulties with certain aspects of their job because of pregnancy.
• 62% of women (almost two-thirds) reported a negative change in their employer’s attitude towards them during pregnancy.

[Read the report]