Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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65. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the requirements of employers for recording pregnancy related sickness absence in the workplace; if an employer is required to record pregnancy related sickness absence separately from other sick leave in order that it is ignored as absence and not used as a disadvantage for disciplinary action, dismissal, or redundancy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17588/20]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Maternity benefit and sickness benefit payments to employees are administered by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The Unfair Dismissals Act 1979 and the Redundancy Payments Act 1969 are currently the responsibility of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection although they will shortly move to my Department as part of a wider Transfer of Functions.

The Maternity Protection of Employees and the Employment Equality Acts are the responsibility of the Minster for Justice and Equality.

Under Irish law, pregnant employees, employees on maternity leave and employees who have recently given birth are afforded significant protection from dismissal. Under the Unfair Dismissal Acts a dismissal is considered to be automatically unfair if the employee is dismissed for reason of pregnancy, giving birth, breast feeding or any connected matters. The twelve-month service requirement, which usually applies under the Act, does not apply to employees dismissed for these reasons. In the case of pregnant employees, the burden of proof is on an employer to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that the dismissal was unrelated to pregnancy.

The Equality Acts prohibit the treatment of one person less favourably than another on the basis of nine grounds including gender (this includes pregnancy-related discrimination). Once it can be shown the employer knew of the pregnancy, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to show, on the balance of probabilities, that there has been no discrimination. There is no service requirement under the Equality Acts: employees are entitled to this protection from day one of their employment.

Complaints in relation to contraventions of, and disputes as to entitlements under employment, equality and equal status legislation may be referred to the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission using the online complaint form .