Make it illegal for companies to provide maternity benefits only after 1 year.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

Many companies currently have maternity policies that mean women who have been employed by them less than a year get no company benefits. This means women who are trying for a baby have to stop trying for the whole duration of a job hunt or remain in place as long as they're trying.

Offering different benefits to people who have been in the company for a year is open discrimination against women as a pregnancy lasts 9 months. The men trying for a baby in the same relationship will be entitled to paid paternity leave regardless. Although there is now an option for shared leave, the vast majority of people using parental leave after the birth of a baby are still female.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Employees are already eligible for statutory maternity pay provided by the Government. You can find out more about this here:

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave/eligibility

Many companies have additional materinity policies, these policies are the responsiblity of individual employers and not the UK Government or Parliament.

You could start a new petition asking for the Government to increase the amount of Statutory Maternity Pay provided, if that's something you'd like to see happen.

Timeline

28 Apr 2019	Petition opened for signatures
22 May 2019	Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21

Status Rejected

Rejected 22 May 2019

Follow this petition