Tomorrow we’re interviewing Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, about the Employment Rights Act 2025 and what it means for working mothers. We spend every day talking to working mums about what is and isn’t working for them. We know that so many of you don’t fully understand what you’re entitled to as a parent in the workplace. Tomorrow, we get to take that straight to the department in charge of that.
His department sets the rules on parental leave, flexible working, maternity protections and the new leave for pregnancy loss due in 2027. If you’ve had leave you couldn’t take, a flexible working request that got turned down, or a return to work that didn’t go to plan, we want to hear it.
Comment below or DM us asap. DMs stay anonymous.
24 days agoma.npreet5710
Prior to company change I applied for flexible working company did not follow correct procedures. To help parents if there role can be done remotely to have 3 mandatory days wfh
a month ago_dontmakemechoose
Hello! Just wondering if you might consider signing and sharing our petition? We are campaigning for the legal right to breastfeed and express at work! Expressing in the toilet needs to get in the bin! No mother should have to choose between breastfeedinf their baby and earning a living: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/779114
a month agorootedandrested_sleep
A review of SMP and maternity allowance for self-employed Mum’s is very much overdue!
a month agolydiasaramoss
Just a few of the things that don’t make sense with the UK system - Paternity leave that’s more the two weeks especially if the birth wasn’t smooth?..Maternity leave of only one year?..Childcare that’s actually affordable?..Equality when it comes to promotions as a woman in your 30s regardless whether you may have a baby or another or not at all?..Sanitary products for all women should be free?..Why is formula so expensive?..When babies have colic and mums are struggling why is there so little help?..thank you ladies, good luck! X
a month agohardeepvangijzel
Expanding funded childcare is necessary, but the UK's working culture needs a fundamental rethink. Relying on institutional care ignores the rising risks of parental burnout and the impact on child mental health. We need to make flexible and part-time work the default norm for all viable jobs. This has to go beyond the current flexible working request model, as the right to request doesn't provide much when companies can decline for vague reasons. This model is already proven by the Netherlands, which has the highest child well-being scores in the world according to UNICEF.
a month agoflexibleworking.scotland
We need leaders who understand the lived reality of working parents. Many qualified, experienced women have been told they can "have it all" and yet cannot see how a full-time, full-on job is possible on top of all the unpaid childcare, household management and mental load. Boardrooms are dependent on this invisible, unpaid work and the higher ranks of business have been designed on the back of it. We need three policy instruments to keep women's talent and experience in the labour market: 1. accessible, affordable childcare - this isn't a cost, it's infrastructure 2. flexible and part-time work at all skills levels and 3. support for women to rebuild confidence and skills once they have temporarily left the workplace.
a month agojmck1106
Mandatory paid leave for employees who have to take time off due to a child being ill.
a month agomysticone
I almost got managed out when I returned to work. I had a baby, but my head was still on my neck as far as I am concerned. Luckily, I didn't put up with it for too long, and after six months, I found myself a better job with a promotion.
a month agopollyo21
SMP needs to be at least minimum wage. It still blows my mind that we all accepted furlough payments during covid needed to be 80% of salary and yet expect mums to survive on a pittance
a month agojadeaileenbrash
How does the government plan to protect mothers more? I’m 7 weeks in from return from Mat leave ( my baby is 8 months old, I had to return because I couldn’t afford to be on Mat leave anymore) and I’m about to be made redundant. The redundancy maternity protection has so many loop holes that employers abuse it’s literally pointless now.
a month agocarolinepriddle
Highly skilled women are opting out of the workforce because the traditional workplace doesn’t enable flexibility so that they can also drop their kids at school or pick them up or see them in school holidays. These women are extremely experienced, capable and damn do they work hard and get the work done at all hours - but they are exhausted and pushed aside and overlooked for promotion anyway so they think, what’s the point and leave. Women value flexibility over every other career marker but it’s not there. Make work flex and they might stay.
a month agotwin_jem
Pension contributions while on maternity leave should be continued at the level of your salary (not SMP). I found this out 3 years after my maternity leave and my employer quickly rectified the issue but so many women will be losing out in this area! Also I'm still waiting for compensation on loss of earnings for those 3 years of underpaid contributions... It shouldn't be this difficult!
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