Sex discrimination complaints
The most common type of complaint on the ground of sex was in relation to pregnancy accounting for 31% of the sex complaints in employment (Table 23) in the last five years. Pregnancy complaints include women being made redundant or having their roles otherwise terminated shortly after advising of pregnancy (34 complaints), being declined roles (12) or other pre-employment problems (10), and poor treatment after advising of pregnancy (16).
Related to the pregnancy complaints were a further 23 complaints about parental leave, including problems with jobs not being held open for people returning from parental leave.
Sexual harassment is included as a separate form of discrimination in the HRA and remains persistently high.
Table 23: Sex discrimination and employment complaints
| Number of sex complaints | Proportion of sex complaints | |
| Pregnancy | 128 | 31% |
|
Gender preference in pre-employment |
95 | 23% |
| Parental leave | 23 | 6% |
Table 24: Sexual harassment complaints
| Number of sexual harassment complaints | Proportion of sexual harassment complaints | |
| Harassment (by colleague or not specified) | 184 | 57% |
| Harassment by person in senior role | 113 | 35% |