‘100% from now’: pregnancy still closes workplace doors
Two concluded DO cases show how a hiring deadline and a performance complaint became lost work after pregnancy entered the record.
The application looked promising after the candidate disclosed her pregnancy. A manager praised her CV, then said the role required “100% from now”. She offered ways to start around parental leave, but the recruitment process ended.
In the July case, Sweden’s Discrimination Ombudsman found reason to assume the process had been stopped because of pregnancy. DO said the woman had qualifications equivalent to the applicant invited to interview. The parties settled after DO sought SEK 100,000.
A second case followed a hired consultant. After pregnancy-related absence and then full sick leave, the client company reported dissatisfaction with her work. The staffing company dismissed her that day. DO assessed that both companies had disadvantaged her because of the pregnancy-related absence; each paid SEK 45,000 in a voluntary agreement.
The consultant case exposes a protection workers can easily miss. Responsibility did not stop with the company that signed the employment contract. DO said the client company was also responsible when it ended an assignment for a reason connected to a protected ground.
Employers do not have to hire every pregnant applicant. DO’s current guidance says they must assess her on the same terms as other candidates and cannot exclude her for reasons connected to pregnancy or parental leave.
Both matters ended through settlement or voluntary agreement, not court judgments, and two cases cannot show how common the practice is. They do show how responsibility can travel through recruitment and a client assignment before a woman ever receives a judicial ruling.
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