By law when am I supposed?

Question

To tell my employer that i am pregnant?

Answer 1

It is illegal for an employer to use pregnancy as a reason to take any adverse personnel action that would not have been undertaken otherwise, including lay-off, reduced responsibilities or reduced pay. Wisconsin also requires some parents be allowed unpaid leave in connection with births and adoptions.

Apologies. Having just posted that, I just realised this applies to Wisconsin USA, although I'd imagine that the same would hold true in the UK. Let me see if I can find a UK reference for you. :)

Ok here's the UK version. Sorry about that. I'll leave what I've already posted incase any USA people are interested. :)

How and when should I tell my employer I'm pregnant?

To give the correct notice, you must let your employer know about your pregnancy by the 15th week before the week that you are expecting your baby (called the Notification Week or the Qualification Week). Work this out by going to the Sunday before your due date (or staying with that date if your baby is due on a Sunday, and counting back another 15 weeks.

During the notification week, you must tell your employer:
• that you are pregnant and intend to go on maternity leave
• that you want to receive Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)
• the planned date that you will be starting your maternity leave (which cannot be earlier than 11 weeks before your baby is due).

Then your employer will reply within 28 days, stating the date that the company expects you to return if you take your full leave entitlement.

If you need to change the date, you will have to give 28 days' notice.

Answer 2

As other people have said, I don't think there is an actual law regarding this. But for health and safety reasons you should really let them know. It will benefit you in the end as they have to give you appropriate time off for ante-natal appointments, it saves you having to use up holiday time for clinic visits.
You don't say how pregnant you are. I could fully understand if you were planning to wait until after the 12 week markbefore letting them know.
Is there not an understanding manager you could tell and ask him/her not to make it public ?

Answer 3

I'm in the UK so apologies if you're not - I only know what things are like here.

There is no "law" anut when you have to tell them.

If you want to take Maternity Leave you have to let them know by the 15th week before the baby's due - which would be about week 25 of your pregnancy.

If you weren't planning to take maternity leave - for example were plannign to leave the job before that time, you wouldn't in theory have to tell them at all.

The only thing is, while you're pregnant you're protected from dimissal for any sick time you take for pregnancy related reasons. If like me you have terrible morning sickness and end up having to take loads of time off you will have to tell them - my employers had a strict disciplinary code thing for time off sick - 4 occurances and you had a "disciplinary hearing" - so there was no way I could have carried on pretending it was a stomach bug or something, I'd have ended up being sacked. It was easier just to tell them because I knew that way I could take the time off when I needed it and wasn't going to get into any trouble because of it.

You are also entitled to paid time off for any ante-natal care - visits to the doctor, parentcraft classes, visits to the midwife etc - that you take and obviously if they don't know you're pregnant they won't be able to give you this.

So it makes sense to tell them. I don't see what the big deal is anyway, people wanting to keep their pregnancies a "secret" - its not like its anything to be ashamed of!!!

And no, by law you cannot be sacked, penalised or treated in any unfair way because you are pregnant - neither can you be turned down for promotion or anything.

Answer 4

I don't think there is a law for that. But common courtesy would say that you should tell your employer as soon as you can. And definitely before you start showing.

Your employer needs time to make arrangements for your replacement at least until you can return to the job.

Answer 5

Actually I dont think there is a specific law for that. But I think in order to get benifits and to be able to take the time off you need, i think you have to tell them soon, that way they can prepare. Someone told me I had to tell me employer as soon as I found out. But I dont know if thats true or not. I would go ahead and tell them though, just to be on the safe side.

Answer 6

Umm... there is no law. But you should tell them as soon as possible. I'm pregnant 7 weeks and I actually didn't tell my employer but one of my co workers found out that I was pregnant because she noticed that I was getting a belly and that I was complaning about headaches, cramps and lower backaches. But now everyone in the office knows. My boss hasn't said one thing to me about it. But I have my first real appointment tomorrow and then I'm going to tell him. Good luck!

Answer 7

don't know if there is a law about it but i do know that you must tell your employer as soon as possible as they will have to do a risk assessment on you as to what you can and can't do whilst you are pregnant e.g. lifting anything heavy or going up a ladder etc. good luck

Answer 8

There is NO law any were that you have to tell any one that you are pregnant. I personally would tell before you start showing, many women do not tell people until after the 3rd month (in case of problems)

Answer 9

I don't believe there is any such law. You should tell them as soon as you are comfortable telling them or before you start showing unless you develop complications and need to take time off then you should tell them at this time so that they know why you aren't at work. Also if you are going to be unable to perform certain duties of your job you should give them some advance notice as to make other arrangements to have your obligations fulfilled by someone else.

Answer 10

Depends on what kind of job you have. If you work in a profession where the baby can be exposed to dangerous things such as radiation, meningitis etc then you must let them know immediately (not a law though). However, you must call the insurance company within a certain amount of time to inform them of the pregnancy, they set a limit of usually within first trimester, if you don't they could choose not to cover the baby.