Rights of a working woman during pregnancy and childbirth

If you are pregnant, it is important to know that you have special rights
Pregnant women often have to leave work to undergo various examinations and treatments, and they are afraid of how their employer will react to this. What many of them do not know at all is that, by virtue of their position, they have special rights that protect them legally. In the next four issues of the monthly we will talk in detail about the rights of a working woman during pregnancy and childbirth.
you are pregnant? Mazel Tov. The good news certainly comes with a lot of concerns, some of which also relate to your workplace. The particular situation you are in often requires you to undergo certain tests, treatments, and time away from work. so what do we do? What does the law say about this? What about a woman who has to be away for quite a long time? Can her employer fire her because of this? What about the rights of the mother during the period after childbirth? It is for this reason that we have prepared a summary of the details of your rights for you.
This week we will look at the subject of the duty to notify the employer of pregnancy: In this week’s article I will look at the subject of the duty to notify the employer of pregnancy:
And I’ll start with a few general words:
Israel’s 2014 labor laws are intended to protect working women during pregnancy and childbirth, but despite the ultimate goal, in real life protection is limited.
Many women are surprised by the partial roof required by law. For example: you cannot fire a pregnant employee – but the ban can be circumvented, since the employer can request permission to fire a pregnant woman from the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Economy in many cases will even allow this, and the employee will be left without work and without employment opportunities.
In addition, an employer, who is sometimes afraid to fire a pregnant employee, can “animalize” the employee: change the conditions of her work, transfer her to another position, to another room, or, as an option, “look for her,” and monitor every hour and every absence, the purpose of which is to disrupt the work of a pregnant employee before her dismissal.
Although there are regulations prohibiting harassment of a pregnant woman, fighting to prove that it is harassment, rather than strict and legitimate labor requirements on the part of the employee, will take a lot of time, money and effort, and will not always be successful.
When does the duty to notify of pregnancy arise? An employee must notify her employer of her pregnancy in the fifth month of pregnancy. The Women’s Labor Law does not expressly state the obligation to notify the employer of pregnancy, but with regard to overtime work, weekly rest and night work, Article 10 of the Women’s Labor Law states that an employee who is five months pregnant must notify her employer. and if she does so, she is not allowed to take advantage of weekly rest, overtime or night work. The accepted legal interpretation of this issue is that the employer must be notified within the fifth month that the employee is pregnant.
Is it better to announce pregnancy immediately and before the due date? Sometimes the office asks whether it would be better to inform the employer about the pregnancy in advance, thereby preventing the manager from finding out about the pregnancy through a third party, then firing the employee and even stating that he did not know about the pregnancy at all and the dismissal was carried out no matter what. The answer to this question lies in the circumstances of each individual case; there are employers who, having learned about pregnancy, will rush to fire an employee, and there are vice versa, 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 pregnancy is an open secret in the workplace, I recommend informing the employer about it, thereby avoiding accusations of ignorance on his part.
Should you talk about pregnancy at an interview?
The National Labor Court recently awarded compensation of more than NIS 100,000 to an employee who did not disclose her pregnancy at an interview and was fired about a month after starting work, as soon as her employer discovered the pregnancy she had been hiding from him. In this ruling, the court set rivets to the approach established by courts in the past, according to which there is no duty to inform the employer of the pregnancy at the interview, unless it is an unusual and extraordinary circumstance, that is, if it turns out that the employee is pregnant, the employer must “absorb” the losses incurred, future absences due to examination and/or illness, as well as the need to find a replacement for the period of maternity leave, etc.