New equality laws came into effect on the 1st October. The Sexual Discrimination Act has been made clear on discrimination on recruitment, employment and vocational training based on a persons' sex.
Women cannot now be treated less favourably because of pregnancy or maternity leave. Employers must ensure the workplace is free of discrimination and harassment, and employees must understand that behaving in a way that might offend another person, violate their dignity or create a hostile environment is unlawful.
A claim of suffering discrimination or harassment must be responded to within 8 weeks. Failure to do so could count against an employer in an employment tribunal. The law also applies to employees normally resident in the UK who work outside the country.
Our view
This is a difficult subject. Accepting that it is the law, how can you expect any employer to be comfortable with being forced to recruit a person who after a few months may then leave due to pregnancy and may actually not come back to work?
What works in law will never always work in practice. The law is there to protect against abuse but it is yet another burden on the employer. That said, is positive towards women of all ages and we actively welcome "mom's" along with any other "group" into our employ.
We have no bias, we recruit who can best do the job and accept that people come and go over time.