Time off for ante-natal care

Employees have the right to reasonable paid time off work for antenatal appointments, which includes the time spent travelling to an appointment and waiting. You should be paid as usual (i.e. at your usual hourly rate) for these appointments. As an employee, you have this right regardless of your length of service or the number of hours you work for an employer i.e. these rights apply even if you are very new in your role. You should not be asked to make up the time at a later date.

You will need to ask your employer for time off to attend antenatal appointments. An employer cannot require you to provide proof of an antenatal appointment or proof of pregnancy for your first antenatal appointment.

Your employer can ask you for written proof of the subsequent antenatal appointments (i.e. after your first appointment) and a certificate or note from your doctor or midwife, stating that you are pregnant. If you do not provide these when asked, your employer can refuse the time off so it is always a good idea to provide these to your employer as soon as you can.

An employer cannot tell you:

• when you can take time off for antenatal appointments;
• require you to make antenatal appointments in your own time, or make the time up later; or
• seek to change your working pattern on the basis of antenatal appointments. For example, it is unlikely to be reasonable for an employer to only offer to pay you for attendance at an antenatal appointment, and then to require you to remain off work for the remainder of the day as unpaid time or annual leave.

An employer should also not put unreasonable pressure on you in relation to the length or frequency of appointments.

If you are an agency worker (and a worker, not an employee), from the beginning of your assignment you are entitled to take unpaid time off to attend antenatal appointments.

After 12 weeks of working as an agency worker in the same assignment, you are entitled to reasonable paid time off from your normal working hours to attend antenatal appointments. This should be paid by the agency at your usual hourly rate, and you should not be asked to make up the time at a later date. This includes the time it takes you to travel to and from your appointment.

The agency or the hirer can ask for written proof of the appointment (from the second appointment onwards) and a certificate or note from your doctor or midwife, stating that you are pregnant, and can refuse the time off if you do not provide these.

An employer can only refuse a request for time off to attend antenatal appointments where it is reasonable to do so. This is frequently an issue for both employees and employers, and what is `reasonable’ will depend on the individual circumstances.

For example, relevant factors may include:

• the employee’s usual working hours,
• the time, length and frequency of the antenatal appointments,
• whether the employee is being asked to attend more antenatal appointments than usual (for example, because the pregnancy is considered to be ‘high risk’; and
• the nature of the employee’s work.

How much notice is given by the employee to the employer of the appointment(s) can also be relevant. For example, it may be reasonable for an employer to refuse time off if short notice is given for a non-urgent appointment where cover cannot be arranged, or if the appointment could easily be made for outside of work hours. It is also reasonable for an employer to refuse the time off if the employee has not provided the requested evidence of the appointment/your pregnancy (for subsequent appointments).

Employees can help their employer by providing as much information about their antenatal appointments, with as much notice as possible, and by trying to minimise disruption to the working day. This might be by trying to book your antenatal appointments at a time that will reduce your absence from work (e.g. at the start or end of your working day, if that is an option). For part-time workers, for example, you should try to arrange appointments on your non­working days — although where this is not possible and is out of your control, an employer must allow the time off. You may also want to discuss with your employer how your work will be covered in your absence.

It is unlawful for an employer to unreasonably refuse the time off, to unreasonably refuse pay for the time off, to dismiss a woman or to treat her less favourably because she has taken time off for ante natal care. Not only is this likely to be pregnancy discrimination, but the employer can be required to pay compensation at twice the hourly rate for the period when the employee/agency worker would have been entitled to paid time off.

If you have been unreasonably refused time off as required by section 55(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (the “ERA”) or not paid for time off under section 56 ERA you can bring a complaint to an Employment Tribunal. A dismissal for a reason related to ante-natal appointments will also be automatically unfair dismissal s99 ERA. There are strict time limits for tribunal claims, most claims must be brought within three months’ less a day of the act complained of and will be subject to the rules on ACAS Early Conciliation.

See our detailed advice pages for more information on pregnancy and maternity discrimination and bringing claims in the Employment Tribunal.

Partners who are employees also have a right to unpaid time off work for up to two antenatal appointments. For more information, see our article on Time off work when your partner is pregnant here.

Employees (with no minimum service requirement) and qualifying agency workers (being those who have being doing the same kind of work for their agency for at least 12 weeks) are entitled to unpaid time off to accompany an expectant mother to up to two ante-natal appointments, capped at 6.5 hours per appointment.

This applies if you are the baby’s father, the expectant mother’s spouse, civil partner, or partner (of either sex) in an enduring relationship, a woman who is to be treated as a parent of the child, or the intended parents of a child in a surrogacy arrangement if you expect to be entitled to and intend to apply for a parental order in respect of that child. Some employers may offer paid time off to accompany an expectant mother to an antenatal appointment. It’s worth checking this with your employer.

If you are taking time off to accompany the expectant mother to an antenatal appointment, your employer cannot ask for any evidence of the antenatal appointment itself. However, they can ask you for a signed declaration statement, in which you confirm:

• the date and time of the appointment;
• that you qualify for the unpaid time off; and
• that the time off is for the purposes of attending an ante-natal appointment with the expectant mother which has been made on medical advice.

If this is not provided, the request for time off can be refused.