HR people often think that the reason it’s important to notify your employer when you become pregnant is in order to ensure you are eligible for all the maternity rights. However, the picture looks different when you look at it from the health and safety angle.
If you don’t notify your employer that you are pregnant, it makes it impossible to carry out a risk assessment that takes into account your condition. This might include workplace stress, manual handling, appropriate seating and working areas.
Organisations must specify (in the staff handbook or the equivalent) that women who are pregnant need to notify their employer as soon as they are aware of their situation. This enables employers to manage the health and safety of staff who are pregnant. In many countries this is not simply a moral requirement, but a statutory duty for employers.
It’s not to do with an invasion of your privacy, simply about safe working practices for your own health and the safety of your unborn child.
