The Jacinda Question - can employers ask job applicants about their baby plans?
After weeks of guessing and a hard fought election, Jacinda Ardern, Labour’s youngest ever leader is now Prime Minister of New Zealand. She heads a Labour led government with a New Zealand First and Green party coalition.
She made international news during the election campaign for refusing to be drawn on whether she planned to have children and for criticising the AM Show’s Mark Richardson, when he suggested that all employers have a right to know this when hiring a woman.
It raised an important question for employers. Is it ever ok to ask a female candidate about her baby plans?
The answer here in New Zealand is clear. Discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy, childbirth and family status is prohibited. A range of legislative protections to this effect are enshrined in the Human Rights Act 1993, the Employment Relations Act 2000 and the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987.
As pregnancy can raise the possibility of altered working conditions and parental leave, some employers may like to know of a woman’s plans, but asking about that raises significant risk. Women must be treated the same as any other candidate in the recruitment process. Pregnancy, or potential pregnancy, should not be taken into account when deciding who to hire. There is generally no lawful reason for an employer to ask such questions of a candidate therefore.
This most likely also applies where the position is for a fixed term or where an employer has health and safety concerns given the pregnancy.
Simply assuming that a pregnant woman may not work for the full period of a fixed term of employment is likely to fall foul of our employment laws. A court would likely say that it cannot be anticipated how much parental leave she may wish to take, or even be entitled to.
From a health and safety perspective, it would be rare that work which is safe for other employees would pose a risk due to pregnancy. Even where this is so (for example say where the work involves heavy lifting or exposure to chemicals) there are usually alternatives open to employers. They include temporarily changing an employee’s duties or directing her to take early parental leave. The New Zealand courts are likely to prefer such alternative arrangements being implemented, over say a scenario where a woman is denied access to employment in the first place.
Men are also protected from discrimination on grounds of family status and are able to share parental leave with the mother. In fact, any person who is the primary carer of a child can now apply for leave from employment where certain conditions are met given changes to parental leave legislation in 2016.
This all means baby plans should not be a topic for discussion at interviews in job situations, no matter who is applying for the job.
We also add that the law surrounding parental leave was recently changed, as noted above, and can be tricky to navigate. Our employment team can help you make sure that the right procedures are being followed.
If you want to know more please contact Geraldine Biggs, Associate, in our Litigation Team, Ph 03 379 4660 or via the email link below.
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Kalle
"Sports and travelling run in the family, and that's kind of what's led me to come to New Zealand."
"I grew up in a small town in Finland. My dad was involved with sports all his life, he was a shot putter, discus thrower, powerlifter, we traveled quite a bit when I was a kid. He never mentioned much of the rugby days. He just said he broke both of his shin bones playing rugby, so he said, ‘never play the sport, It's crazy.’
I started playing when I was 18. I played my first cap for the Finnish national team in 2014, we won the Finnish championship with my club. Rugby is not a big thing in Finland.
I moved here to play rugby in 2017. The club that wanted me to come over was Methven Rugby Club. They got me here and they were like, ‘what do you do for work? I’d just finished chef school in Finland. ‘We'll get you a job at Mount Hutt as a chef, you can do that while you play rugby with us.’ I said, ‘Perfect. Yeah, I'm in’.
I've always loved food. My mum was an amazing cook, and still is. When I was studying tourism I worked in some hotels in Finland, and I saw how the chef's worked. I just loved the kitchen vibe and I was like, Yeah, that’d be something I'd love to do.
I've had more of a culinary journey In New Zealand than in Finland. I started at Mount Hutt, after that I worked at The Dubliner in Methven. I worked as a senior pizza chef at Sal’s for maybe six months then worked as chef de partie at Cellar Door. At Eliza's Manor, I worked myself up to a junior sous chef. Then the opportunity came to work my first head chef job at Moon Under Water.
We're privileged to have a busy atmosphere, we can try new things and get a bit creative. There are no TV’s, just come here with your family or with your mates, play board games, to socialise.
I really want to drive the local food and ingredients through the menu. We don't mind spending more for quality ingredients as long as it's supporting New Zealand businesses. We just love to use local. And it's pub food, but I feel like it's elevated.
I play club rugby here for the Christchurch Football Club, the oldest club in New Zealand and I still play regularly for the Finnish national team, whenever they can fly me over to play."
- Kalle
View more stories, or nominate someone: @humansofchch
www.humansofchch.org......
Poll: Is it okay to grocery shop in your PJs?
I'm sure you've seen it while doing your weekly shop... In fact, it may have even been you.
What do you think about people heading to the supermarket in their pyjamas?
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14.6% It's fine!
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75.4% It's questionable
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10% Other - I'll share below
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