Midwife appointments and work

So this morning I had a normal midwife appointment it’s about 45 minutes and I come back to work right after. I typically like to grab lunch across the road and then eat in the office. My boss has moaned at me saying if I’m going to take time out of work for appointments I need to bring lunch to work and eat while I work. Can she do that ? Am I no longer entitled to a lunch break ?

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Legally you’re still entitled to a lunch break and you can choose to do with that time whatever you want. Your boss can’t stop you from having a lunch break, nor can they stop you from going to appointments

Oh dear! I would raise it with HR or the union! You should be entitled to your “paid” appointments slots and your boss should book you out!

Yeah that's illegal and they should know that if they bothered to read the maternity guide for employers! Get your union/HR involved ASAP x

I would go straight to HR and your union. You are entitled to appointment slots and a lunch break!

No she can’t! By law they have to give you time off to go to any antenatal appointments and these can be up to 6.5hours long! I would speak to HR get them involved straight away xx

That’s totally out of order, I had similar experience and my midwife wrote a letter to my HR department outlining that I need regular breaks and it’s my legal right to have time off for my pregnancy related appointments.

You’re entitled to the time off for your appointments. Don’t let them be like that with you. With my first I had to have a glucose tolerance test & the appointment was for 2 hours which I genuinely didn’t realise until I got there, then every appointment I let them know about after that I got snarky remarks from the woman in HR saying ‘oh this one isn’t going to take two hours is it’ so I pulled her up on it. (I’m so glad I didn’t return after my maternity leave was finished 😅)

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