Maternity Leave: Help with Work-Related Stress

Questioner

Ir/Madam, I have a question and I hope you can help me with this. My wife is now 38 weeks pregnant and she is now on maternity leave. But in the past week she has been approached twice by her employer for work. It seems like they are trying to force her to work during her maternity leave. Today she got another text message asking her to check her work email. She doesn't know how to react to this now. Because she really doesn't feel like working during her leave. But if she were to say this to her employer, she knows for 100% sure that this will be used against her during her appraisal interview. This is causing her a lot of stress at the moment and it is not good for the baby. Can you advise me what she could do? I hope you can respond soon. Thank you in advance. Kind regards, RM

Lawyer

How annoying that the employer puts your wife in such a situation. The employer cannot force your wife to work during maternity leave. So she does not have to read her mail. Perhaps you could tell the employer that it is very important for the health of your wife and the child that she does not work at this time. If you want to accommodate the employer, you could agree that your wife will respond to a single email, provided that it is not too tiring, if there is no one else who can answer the question in the email. However, that no longer applies after she has given birth, because she then has to think about her health.