New legal ruling clarifies employers’ obligation to risks assessments of pregnant workers

A new legal ruling clarifying that employers are only obliged to carry out assessments on pregnant workers if evidence shows they are subject to health and safety risks should help to reduce the burden on HR professionals.
 
The clarification in the law came about following a judgement handed down in respect of O'Neill versus Buckinghamshire County Council earlier this month by His Honour Judge Ansell.
 
Previous case law in this area had failed to make it clear when and in what circumstances employers were obliged to carry out risk assessments, which led them to undertake such activity for all pregnant employees.
 
Richard Hignett, an employment barrister for No.5 Chambers, who acted as counsel for the local authority, said: "The ruling represents a more realistic approach towards pregnancy and sex discrimination in the workplace."
 
Pregnancy was not an exceptional state of affairs, he added, and there would be many scenarios where a formal risk assessment was simply not required because the working environment posed no particular risk to expectant mothers.