Employment Rights for Working Parents: Pregnancy Discrimination, Surrogacy and Family Leave

The Equality Act 2010 sets out anti-discrimination protections in the workplace.

Pregnancy and maternity are recognised as protected characteristics under this legislation.

This means it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a woman because she is pregnant, on maternity leave or has recently returned from leave.

The law applies across all stages of employment, even from recruitment.

The Equality Act prohibits four key forms of discrimination:

• Direct discrimination: Treating someone less favourably because they are pregnant or are on maternity leave.
• Indirect discrimination: Implementing a policy, criterion or practice that puts pregnant women or mothers at a disadvantage without objective justification.
• Harassment: Subjecting someone to unwanted conduct related to pregnancy or maternity that has the purpose of violating their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, humiliating, degrading or offensive environment.
• Victimisation: Treating someone unfairly for asserting their legal rights or supporting another person in doing so.

Despite these legal protections, the Pregnant Then Screwed data shows that thousands of women find themselves pushed out of the workforce - often subtly - after informing their employer of a pregnancy or following their return from maternity leave.

Surrogate mothers in the UK are entitled to statutory maternity leave in the same way as other pregnant employees.

However, despite suggested reform, the intended mother in a surrogacy arrangement is not entitled to take maternity leave.

Despite this, either of the intended parents may elect to take adoption leave, either on their own or in conjunction with the other partner taking paternity leave.

One or both of them may also qualify for Shared Parental Leave, provided that they fulfil the eligibility requirements in each case.

There are similar protections for those taking adoption leave, paternity leave, or shared parental leave – meaning it’s unlawful to dismiss an employee or subject an employee to a detriment for taking or seeking to take such leave.  

A genuine redundancy situation only occurs in three types of situations:

• A business closure: where the organisation is closing or has already closed
• A workplace closure: where the organisation is closing the location where the employee works
• A reduced requirement of the workforce: where the organisation has diminished requirements for employees to do work of a particular kind 

Since April 2024, employees who are in a ‘protected period’ of pregnancy or during an ‘additional protected period’ after returning to work from maternity leave, adoption leave or shared parental leave (including such leave following a surrogacy arrangement), have the right to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy in a redundancy situation in priority to other ‘at risk’ employees.

This right was extended in April 2025 to include parents who are taking, or have recently taken, neonatal care leave.

A further extension in April 2026 gave employees who are taking, or have recently taken, bereaved partner’s paternity leave the same priority rights.  

This redundancy protection is a rare example of lawful positive discrimination. If the employer does not comply with this requirement, an employee will have a claim for automatic unfair dismissal.