Telling your employer: you do not have to mention a pregnancy at a job interview, and you choose when to tell your employer. The legal protection starts once you hand in a medical certificate of pregnancy, either by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or in person against a signed copy. Telling them early helps if your job needs adapting.
Protection against dismissal: once your employer has the certificate, they cannot dismiss you, even during a trial period, or call you to a pre-dismissal interview until 12 weeks after the birth. The exceptions are serious misconduct, which needs approval from the labour tribunal, and the complete closure of the business. If you are dismissed before telling them, you have 8 days to send the certificate by registered letter, and the dismissal must be cancelled.
Adapting your job:
– paid time off for prenatal check-ups that have to take place during working hours;
– no obligation to work overtime;
– your employer must assess risky tasks, such as lifting loads over 5 kg or contact with certain chemicals or infections like rubella, with the occupational health doctor, then adapt your job, move you to another job on the same pay, or exempt you from work, with the CNS paying you an equivalent amount;
– you can ask to be exempted from night work if the occupational health doctor finds it a risk.
Sick leave: if you are ill during pregnancy, the usual rules apply. Tell your employer on the first day of absence and, if you are off for more than 2 days, send the doctor’s certificate to your employer and the CNS by the third day.
After the birth, breastfeeding mothers get paid breastfeeding breaks and keep the protection against overtime, night work and risky tasks.