The woman, because she is a woman, suffers significant latent discrimination, since at any given time in her life she can become pregnant. The current legislation, with the Constitution at the head, protects women against discrimination or abuse of business power, but this discrimination, unfortunately, is a tonic in most companies.
These discriminations are found primarily in private companies, given that, on equal terms, a man is to be hired before a woman. This type of retrograde postures are based on the difficulty of replacing women during their maternity leave along with the higher associated labor cost for the company to support a replacement for maternity. In order to improve the legal information and the rights and obligations of women and the company during pregnancy and subsequent birth, we are preparing to make a series of posts that explain all the ins and outs of the employment relationship, starting this series by the moment when you have to communicate pregnancy in the company.
Job and pregnancy interviews
In the case of being immersed in a process of personnel selection, job search, oppositions or any other factor of incorporation into the labor market, we must never communicate that we are pregnant. There is no legal obligation to do so and it is a mere matter of business and personal logic.
As I have said before, a pregnant woman is more expensive for the company than another that is not, so most companies will reject our candidacy for the job because they are pregnant.
If at any given time, we believe that we have been discriminated against in a selection process for a pregnancy, we can act against the company, since the constitutional rights of non-discrimination have been violated, but these judicial procedures rarely come to fruition and they are usually quite expensive.
Obligation to communicate pregnancy?
The worker has no legal obligation to communicate to the company You are pregnant. There is no point in all labor legislation that indicates that women have to communicate this personal and private fact to the company. But that this legal obligation of communication does not exist, does not make it essential to carry out such communication as soon as possible in the following cases:
- Risk to the fetus or mother in the performance of usual job functions. Imagine, for example, a woman who works in an X-ray service, a chemical plant or performs particularly painful work. In this type of circumstances, an improvement in the prevention of labor risks of the mother is required and therefore, the sooner the fact is communicated, the better for all.
- Need to job change During pregnancy. It may be the case that the job we are performing is not compatible with a pregnancy, such as the described example of an X-ray nurse or a bacteriological laboratory assistant. In this case, the communication to the company must be immediate together with the request for a change of position to another that does not have risks for the fetus and the mother.
- Need to go to gynecological checkups. In these cases, when it is necessary to have a series of continued absences in the workplace, there must be an express communication by the future mother.
However, each company is a world and each employment relationship is unique, so common sense advises to avoid this type of communications in the case of temporary contracts, situations of labor instability or at those extremes that are not really essential.
Way of communicating pregnancy
In the case of carrying out pregnancy communication, we must carry it out always in writing and with acknowledgment of receipt. That is, in a document, we write a letter to the management of the company, personnel department or area responsible for the human resources of our company.
This document must state the expected date of delivery, the medical classification of the same, differentiating whether it is a risk pregnancy or not, the forecast we have to have maternity leave and all those data that we consider appropriate to facilitate the adaptation of the Company to the new situation.
It is important that we state in the communication if the gynecologist has prescribed rest, avoid situations of effort or similar in order to achieve a change of job or a better adaptation of it for our professional performance.
In cases where there is a medical prescription, it is necessary to attach the medical report with these job change recommendations. This report should be done by the gynecologist himself or the family doctor.
The worker must keep a copy signed and stamped by the company on this communication, since if the company decides to carry out a dismissal, not adapt the job or improve risk prevention systems, this document is basic to take the appropriate legal measures a posteriori.
In the following post we will analyze the casuistry in types of labor contracts, the different existing social security regimes as the steps to be taken in the case of dismissal after the pregnancy communication.
