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The answer to this will depend on why the employer wishes to dismiss the employee and the extent to which the employer wants to protect himself against what potentially could be very expensive claims by the employee—see Special protection for pregnant employees below.

An employer may be able to dismiss, provided the reason for the dismissal, or for the proposed selection for redundancy (directly or indirectly and taking a broad view) is not the pregnancy or the fact that the employee will be taking maternity leave—see Establishing the reason for the dismissal/selection below.

Some employers fall into the trap of trying to ‘dress up’ a dismissal as ostensibly for another reason, eg misconduct or poor performance or as a redundancy, when the reality is that the pregnancy has affected their motivation to some extent. Bear in mind that a decision to dismiss a pregnant employee will come under particular scrutiny if the matter comes before a tribunal.

In practical terms, it may be simpler for the employer to hedge his bets about, eg an underperforming