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Pregnant employees
Last updated August 2023
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 her rights;
- manage the health and safety risks to the employee and the foetus;
- enable the employee to transfer to a safe job or to take no safe job leave, if necessary;
- allow the employee to take leave for pregnancy-related illness;
- consult the employee about changes to her employment; and
- ensure the employee is free from discrimination.
Remember: You have most 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.