Are you pregnant? It’s important to know that you have special rights

Pregnant women often need to leave work for various tests and treatments, and fear the employer’s reactions to this. What many of them do not know at all, is that they have special rights due to their condition, which protects them legally. In the next four issues of the monthly, we will deal extensively with the rights of a working woman, during pregnancy and childbirth

you are pregnant? Mazel Tov. The good news is certainly accompanied by quite a few concerns, some of which are also related to your workplace. The special situation you are in, often requires you to undergo certain tests, receive some medical treatment and be absent from work. so what are we doing? What does the law say about it? And what about a woman who has to be away quite a bit? Can the employer fire her because of this? And what about the mother’s rights in the period after the birth? Precisely for this reason, we have prepared for you a summary of the details of your rights.

This week, we will review the subject of the obligation to notify the employer of pregnancy, and I will start with a few general words: the labor laws in Israel 2014 are intended to protect the public of working women during pregnancy and childbirth, but despite the ultimate goal, in practical life, the protection is limited.

Many women are surprised by the partial roof provided by the law. For example: you must not fire a pregnant employee – but the prohibition can be circumvented, since the employer can request a permit to fire a pregnant woman from the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Economy will even allow this in many cases, and the employee will remain without a job, and without the possibility of finding a job.

In addition, an employer who is sometimes afraid of firing a pregnant employee, can “bitter the animal” of the employee: change the conditions of her work, transfer her to another position, to another room, or alternatively “look for her”, and keep an eye on every hour and every absence, with the ultimate goal being the labor on the pregnant employee, until her resignation.

Although, there are some rulings that prohibit harassment towards a pregnant woman, but the struggle to prove that this is harassment, and not strict and legitimate work demands from the employee, will take a lot of time, money and energy, and will not always be successful.

When is there an obligation to notify of pregnancy?

An employee must notify her employer of her pregnancy in the fifth month of her pregnancy. The Women’s Labor Law does not explicitly state the obligation to notify the employer about the pregnancy, but the law states regarding overtime work, weekly rest and night work, in section 10 of the Women’s Labor Law, that an employee who is in her fifth month – shall notify her employer, and if she does so, she shall not be employed During the weekly rest, overtime or night work. The accepted legal interpretation of the matter is that the employer must be notified during the fifth month that the employee is pregnant.

Is it better to tell about the pregnancy immediately, and before the due date?

The question is sometimes addressed to the offices, is it better to tell the employer about the pregnancy in advance, thus preventing the manager from finding out about the pregnancy through a third party, then firing the employee, and even claiming that he did not know about the pregnancy at all, and the dismissal was done regardless. The answer to this question lies in the circumstances of each individual case. There are employers who, after learning of a pregnancy, will rush to fire the employee, and there are the opposite. But it is important to understand that notification of pregnancy does not constitute an insurance certificate against dismissal. In any case, when the fact of the pregnancy is an open secret in the workplace, my recommendation is to tell the employer, thus avoiding a claim of ignorance on his part.

Should you tell about pregnancy during a job interview?

The National Labor Court recently awarded compensation in the amount of over NIS 100,000, in favor of an employee who did not tell about her pregnancy in the job interview, and was fired about a month after the beginning of her employment, as soon as her employer learned about the pregnancy which she hid from him. In this ruling, the court established rivets to the approach established by the courts in the past that there is no obligation to inform the employer of the pregnancy in a job interview, unless it is an unusual and unusual circumstance, therefore in the event that it turns out that the employee is pregnant, the employer must “absorb” the damages involved, the future absences due to tests and/or illness, as well as the need to find a replacement for the period of maternity leave and the like.

In next week’s article, we will review the topic of absences from work during pregnancy.

The article was written by attorney Tzur Yosef – who deals, among other things, with labor law and serves as the ombudsman for the Hidavorot organization. The above content does not contain any recommendation, legal opinion or legal advice; also, the above content does not pretend to be accurate and/or comprehensive and / or current, and the person who relies on the information does so at his own risk and in his own opinion.