23 min read

Pregnant employees

Last updated July 2025

This chapter explains your legal obligations to employees who are pregnant and how to meet those obligations.

How to meet your obligations to pregnant employees

As an employer, you have certain obligations to all your employees. When an employee is pregnant, you have some additional legal obligations with which you must comply.

To meet your obligations, you should:

  • inform the employee of their rights (read more);
  • manage the health and safety risks to the employee and the foetus (read more);
  • enable the employee to transfer to a safe job (read more) or to take no safe job leave (read more), if necessary;
  • allow the employee to:
    • take leave for pregnancy-related illness (read more);
    • request a flexible work arrangement (read more); and
    • take flexible unpaid parental leave (read more);
  • consult the employee about changes to their employment (read more); and
  • ensure the employee is free from discrimination (read more).
Remember: You have many of these obligations to all your employees. Often you will need to go a little further to meet these obligations when an employee is pregnant.
Tip: Encourage your employees to advise you of their pregnancy as early as is reasonable for them to do so. The earlier you know about the pregnancy, the sooner you can meet your obligations to them.

Previous
Next