On Monday night, ABC’s Four Corners aired The Pregnancy Penalty, an investigation into how women are treated in the workplace when they become pregnant or return from parental leave. More than 100 women shared their experiences with the program.

We were pleased to see this important issue brought to a national platform, and to see Susan Price, Assistant Principal Solicitor at the Working Women’s Centre NSW, speak about what our centres see every day.

The women who shared their stories

The episode featured women from a range of workplaces. Each told the program she had experienced pregnancy discrimination and was no longer in the role she once held:

  • Abby, formerly a property manager in Brunswick, VIC
  • Alisha, formerly a senior executive in Canberra, ACT
  • Katelyn, formerly a crane driver and rigger in Forster, NSW
  • Challis, formerly a casual picker-packer in a cold-storage warehouse in Truganina, VIC
  • Elizabeth, formerly a research manager in Sydney, NSW

The impact on each woman has been significant. Their careers were disrupted, several left jobs they loved, and many described becoming disillusioned with the workplaces and systems that were meant to protect them.

Speaking publicly carries real personal and professional risks, and we are grateful to each of these women for doing so. Their stories show that pregnancy discrimination occurs across industries and at every level of seniority, and that the consequences for careers, income and financial security can last long after pregnancy.

If it’s illegal, why is it still happening?

Pregnancy discrimination has been unlawful in Australia for decades. Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth told Four Corners the Government is committed to women’s equality, and raised the question at the centre of the episode: if this is already illegal, why is it still happening?

As reporter Avani Dias observed, the law on its own is not enough. We also need cultural change and effective enforcement, which is currently lacking.

This is not a new problem. In 1999, the then Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s national inquiry, Pregnant and Productive, found widespread discrimination against pregnant workers. In 2014, the Commission’s national review found that nearly half of mothers reported discrimination during pregnancy, while on parental leave or after returning to work. As Susan noted, the issue is still very much alive today.

Part of the problem is structural. Many workplace laws were designed around a two-person household where one person did paid work and the other provided care at home. That model does not reflect the way most people live and work today.

The ideal worker

Susan described the assumptions that sit underneath this:

“I think part of this really touches on some deeply held norms that we have around what we expect of mothers and what we expect of fathers. This idea that the ideal worker is a carefree worker: they have no responsibilities. They can come to work 52 weeks of the year. That is the ideal worker. None of us are the ideal workers.”

Workplaces and laws built around this model leave little room for the reality that most workers will have caring responsibilities at some point in their lives.

The barriers to taking action

Enforcement still relies largely on individual women bringing claims, often at one of the most demanding times in their lives.

  • Tight time limits. A woman who is dismissed has 21 days from the date of termination to lodge a claim with the Fair Work Commission, often while pregnant or caring for a newborn.
  • Shorter conferences. Susan noted that Fair Work Commission conferences that once ran for two hours now often run for one. In some cases, applicants have not had an opportunity to speak before negotiations begin, leaving them without a meaningful chance to be heard or explain the impact of what happened.
  • Cost and delay. The process is demanding and often unaffordable, while outcomes rarely reflect what has been lost. Four Corners reported that nearly half of Sex Discrimination Act complaints resolved in 2025–26 took more than a year to finalise, and that the Commission received its highest number of pregnancy discrimination complaints in more than a decade.

Elizabeth’s experience illustrates these barriers. She told Four Corners that her legal action cost $122,000 and that the outcome did not cover those costs. The most stressful stage of the proceedings came when her children were a little older; she said it would have been impossible to endure the process while pregnant or caring for a newborn. Her case ended in a settlement with a confidentiality agreement.

As several of the women featured in the episode explained, when the process is this difficult, there is little incentive to pursue a claim.

Balancing Act

This week, the Australian Human Rights Commission released Balancing Act: Supporting Working Parents and Carers. The report identifies a significant gap between workers’ legal rights and their everyday experiences. Workers described losing shifts, missing promotions, facing questionable redundancies and struggling to access flexible work. The report also finds that these harms are often compounded for people who already face barriers, including migrant and First Nations workers and people in insecure employment.

The report identifies 18 areas for reform, including:

  • changes to the Sex Discrimination Act and Fair Work Act to strengthen legal protections
  • requiring employers to show that redundancies connected to parental leave or caring responsibilities are genuine, with meaningful penalties for non-compliance
  • removing the 12-month continuous service requirement to access unpaid parental leave
  • a stronger presumption that reasonable flexible work requests will be granted
  • improved access to justice
  • better recognition of foster, kinship, grandparent and cultural caring responsibilities

Working Women’s Centres Australia contributed directly to the inquiry. Our CEO, Abbey Kendall, participated in two AHRC consultations and encouraged the Commission to centre lived experience. We also consulted our national network to identify and elevate the issues centres were seeing on the ground, shared case studies with the AHRC, and referred clients to the Commission.

We welcome the Commission’s report and urge the Government to respond to its recommendations.

Support

If you are experiencing discrimination at work because you are pregnant, on parental leave or have caring responsibilities, contact your union. Working Women’s Centres provide a safety net of free and confidential services for women who are not yet union members or have been unable to join. If you have been dismissed, remember that the 21-day time limit runs from the date of termination.

Watch: Four Corners: The Pregnancy Penalty on ABC iview

Read: Balancing Act: Supporting Working Parents and Carers

Author: Yen Pham, Advocacy and Policy Officer, Working Women’s Centre Australia