What kind of employment contract term is an employer barred from signing with a female worker about marriage, pregnancy or childbirth?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In the practice file, we read the employment contract as signed, looking for any clause that treats marriage, pregnancy or childbirth as ending the employment, the identity of the employer who signed it, and whether the worker concerned is female.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the prohibition as covering the making of the contract itself: an employer may not conclude an employment contract that provides, in advance, for a female worker's marriage, pregnancy or childbirth as a reason for retirement, so the bar attaches to the clause at the moment of signing.
Another reading notes that the bar on the clause speaks to what may be written into a contract when it is concluded, and that what follows later is handled by the paragraph that bars treating men and women differently in retirement and dismissal, although that paragraph does not name these grounds.
Your judgment
If such a clause required the worker to sign a resignation letter in advance, would the file show a clause anticipating those grounds or only a later act by the worker?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to name these grounds in the paragraph barring discrimination in retirement and dismissal, or if a court decision explains when a resignation provision counts as anticipating them.