discrimination - trainee midwives win case
WORKERS, JULY 2005 ISSUE
In a landmark case, an Employment Appeal Tribunal has found against the government on the grounds of sex discrimination against trainee midwives.
Trainee midwives who become pregnant have had their bursary award cut and are effectively forced out of midwifery training. The policy raises serious questions about government intentions at a time when Britain is suffering from an acute shortage of midwives.
The case, brought by UNISON as part of its Pay not Poverty campaign for student nurses and supported by the Royal College of Nurses, the Royal College of Midwives and the Equal Opportunity Commission, overturns government policy established in 1989. The decision gives trainee midwives the same maternity rights as any other mother.