- Conference
- 2011 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 22 September 2010
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
When a woman embarks on IVF treatment she declares in advance she is planning to have a baby. An employer may discriminate against her either intentionally or otherwise by not sending her on training courses or holding her back from promotion as “she’ll probably be on maternity leave next year”.
As well as fear of the procedure failing, privacy issues and the stigma of being unable to do what other women seem to manage naturally they are, because of the frequent medical appointments involved, also at risk of falling foul of company sickness and absenteeism policies.
Conference further notes that despite legislation intended to protect pregnant women in the workplace, an estimated 30,000 women per year lose their jobs as a direct, albeit hidden, result of pregnancy discrimination.
Conference calls upon the National Women’s Committee to work with all relevant bodies to produce guidance for branches on negotiating workplace policies on IVF treatment and to campaign on and lobby the Government for IVF policies in every workforce that are confidential, fully supportive and non discriminatory to the prospective mother and partner. Such policies to include the exclusion of IVF treatment from sickness absence procedures.