Great to see @MariaMillerUK pressing the Prime Minister not just on the issue of partners at births & scans, but also on much-needed support & new legal protection for pregnant women & new mothers as we enter the second wave of COVID19.

https://mol.im/a/8876369  via @AVMikhailova
With pregnant women & new mothers facing a wave of unfair redundancies, just as they did during the post-2008 recession, the PM needs to adopt Maria's Pregnancy & Maternity (Redundancy Protection) Bill as the Government's own, and speed it into law.

https://maternityaction.org.uk/2020/09/mums-in-the-frontline/
We'd like to see @RishiSunak go further by adapting the Job Support Scheme to enable employers to recover 100% of the cost of a maternity suspension on full pay (under health & safety law) of a woman who is 28 weeks pregnant or beyond, or otherwise vulnerable to COVID19.
This would avoid the widespread problem we saw during the first wave, of pregnant women wanting to follow the PM & CMO's advice of 16 March - that all pregnant women are especially vulnerable to COVID19 - being unlawfully sent home on sick pay or unpaid leave by their employer.
As evidenced by the @HoCPetitions Committee's report, not only did those women suffer lost wages for the rest of their pregnancy, but many consequently lost entitlement to SMP and - in turn - access to #UniversalCredit - during their maternity leave.
And yes, to enable & encourage more equal parenting, we need to scrap the badly failing #SharedParentalLeave scheme & replace it with a more equitable system of individual, 'use it or lose it' rights to better paid maternity & parental leave.

https://maternityaction.org.uk/2020/10/shared-parental-leave-robbing-petra-to-pay-paul/
You can follow @MaternityAction.
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