Pregnancy and work: complete practical guide to questions to submit

The guide on the correct behavior in the workplace when you are pregnant that can help you take the right steps.

What happens when a worker finds out she’s about to become a mother? She will certainly be filled with great joy at the idea that she will soon be able to hold the much desired baby in her arms. However, a few days later, the doubts related to the workplace slowly begin to emerge. You don’t know exactly what to say to your employer, nor when is the right time to do it. It is not known which documents to submit nor what could happen to one’s employment relationship.

We therefore provide you with a mini-guide on  correct behavior in the workplace that can help you take the right steps in one of the most delicate and important moments of your life.

1. When to communicate your pregnancy to your employer?

A woman who discovers she is pregnant is required to inform her employer. The question that most frequently arises concerns the timescales established by law within which to give the aforementioned news. For clarity, it is necessary to analyze in a combined way the legislation on the protection and support of maternity and paternity (Legislative Decree 151/2001) with the legislation related to health and safety at work (Legislative Decree 81/2008).

We bear in mind that, according to the provisions of Legislative Decree 81/2008, the employer has the obligation to inform, following the risk assessment, its workers on the results of the assessment, highlighting, among other , the possible risks for the safety and health of pregnant women. If the latter are present in the company, the employer must adopt all the necessary precautions in order to prevent future mothers from being directly exposed to these risks, with measures that may concern the modification of working hours, working conditions , duties or finally proceeding with the request for early disqualification from work if the other measures do not prove to be viable.

Therefore, if the worker works in a company where the above risks are present, she will have the obligation to promptly communicate , as soon as she becomes aware of it, her pregnancy to allow the employer to adopt the systems necessary to protect the health of the mother and the unborn child.

The worker must immediately communicate her expectation even if she has a high-risk pregnancy , recognized by a doctor, due to health problems of the woman and/or the fetus.

In all other cases, the legislation does not provide for a mandatory deadline for communicating the state of pregnancy in the company, although it is necessary to give the news before the start of the compulsory abstention, except, however, that the National Collective or Company Contract applied by the company does not foresee certain and precise times to proceed with the communication.

2. How to communicate your pregnancy status

The communication of the state of pregnancy can take place by presenting the medical certificate of pregnancy issued by your gynecologist or by a doctor of the NHS. Alternatively, if the worker is not yet in possession of this document, she can promptly fulfill the communication by means of a self-certification on unstamped paper in which she indicates the expected date of birth, reserving the right to deliver the aforementioned certificate as soon as possible.

3. The communication of the mandatory pre-birth leave

After the first communication, and regardless of whether the worker is working in the company or in early disqualification, she must deliver the receipt of the electronic maternity leave application to her employer by the beginning of the 8th month of pregnancy . This application must be made online by contacting a patronage, or a consultancy firm that deals with such practices or by proceeding independently. In any case, the system will issue the paper receipt of the request which will show the period of compulsory abstention which will go from two months prior to the birth up to the expected date of birth (indicated in the medical certificate of pregnancy).

4. The communication of the mandatory post-birth leave

Within one month of the birth of the child , the worker will have to make a further electronic application for maternity leave which will cover the period of three months following the effective date of the birth. Also in this case, a copy of this receipt must be delivered to the employer.

In place of the electronic leave request receipts (referred to in points 3. and 4.), the worker could produce to her employer by the end of the seventh month of pregnancy a self-certification on plain paper in which she attaches the pregnancy certificate, and indicates the periods of compulsory abstention from work (5 months in all). When the child is born, the worker will take care to integrate the self-certification with the birth certificate and notify the employer of the end of the compulsory leave through a further self-certification. However, in order to avoid errors in defining the dates indicated in the self-certifications, it is advisable to proceed as indicated in points 3. and 4 .

5. Notification of parental leave

 At the end of the compulsory leave, the worker who intends to return to work must not send any other communication to the company. In fact, it will be sufficient to show up at the place where one’s work is carried out at the usual working hours observed before the period of abstention.
However, if the mother also intends to take parental leave (ex. optional maternity leave), in a continuous manner with respect to the compulsory leave, she will have to move in time by making a telematic request for this period of abstention before the end of the compulsory leave. The telematic application can be completed through a patronage, or a consultancy firm, or by proceeding independently.

A copy of the receipt of the parental leave application must be delivered to the employer before the start of the leave itself. Also in this case the mother can decide to produce a self-certification instead.

It should be remembered that even the father could, in place of the mother or in combination with her, decide to take advantage of parental leave. The documentation to be submitted remains the same.