Coronavirus and pregnancy : Royal Mail guidance

[POSTMAN]

I have a pregnant employee in my team and they want to socially distance themselves following the latest Public Health England (PHE) advice. How should I respond?

The current PHE advice is that individuals who are pregnant should limit their social contact where possible, including using less public transport, working at home where possible and considering not going to pubs, restaurants, theatres and bars.

They are also being strongly advised to significantly limit face-to-face interaction with friends and family (social distancing) if possible.

The approach below will be in place until mid-june 2020, when it will be reviewed and may be extended or changed.

The employee should provide you with evidence of their pregnancy. This could be a MAT B1 form or a medical letter/certificate from their GP or Midwife.

If they are not able to provide this immediately please give them time to provide this at a later date. If they can, the employee can work from home following the advice and guidance on working from home.

If an employee is not able to work from home the absence will be treated as a pregnancy related sickness absence and you should choose Coronavirus self-isolation as the absence reason.

If an employee is absent from work due to her pregnancy (including as a result of social distancing due to her being pregnant) after the beginning of the fourth week before her Expected Week of Childbirth then her maternity leave will begin automatically on the first day of the absence.

2nd post PDF in the Global Announcement...
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[POSTMAN]

From the 1.5M letter thread, does that now mean normal pregnant women are ok?
Guidance on shielding and protecting people defined on medical grounds as extremely vulnerable from COVID-19 : Those who received the letter

23/3 Royal Mail has not updated their guidance so is it same o same o?

6:Women who are pregnant with significant heart disease, congenital or acquired.

[POSTMAN]

Unrelated sort of-My daughter who is a normal pregnancy has just been told to self-isolate by Asda warehouse.
Just seen on BBC news regarding Pregnancy, Diabetes and Asthma peeps to significantly avoid face to face contact with others ect

[POSTMAN]

The approach below will be in place until mid-June 2020, when it will be reviewed and may be extended or changed.

[BLUEROBIN]

I have a pregnant member of staff in my team, I was just wondering if the guidance has changed? Do we need to do a risk assessment? Should she be at work at all?

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I have a pregnant member of staff in my team, I was just wondering if the guidance has changed? Do we need to do a risk assessment? Should she be at work at all?

Evem without Coronavirus every pregnancy needs to be risk assessed, each pregnancy is different so there can never be a one size fits all.

[BLUEROBIN]

Thank you, that's what I thought. Management very reluctant to undertake any form of risk assessment until the issue was raised with the union rep. A risk assessment was then carried out with the line manager. The DOM was not aware of this and was furious to find out an RA had been carried out in their absence and ended up conveying this to the member of staff during a meeting. Is there anyone who could share an official Royal Mail policy on pregnancy and covid and further advice on this? Thank you.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

this thread has loads of information viewtopic.php?t=96305

However for specialist advice you could contact the Equalities Office at your CWU Branch offices this is their meat and butter and will probably have more resource to help.

The Equalities rep may be able to confirm my suspicion that the Manager is legally obliged to carry out a risk assessment, and if so will get the manager to "wind their neck in".