Being pregnant can still cost women their jobs in Australia

When Abby McCawley found out she was having a girl, she sent a message to her coworkers to share the exciting news. 

"Everyone around me was so happy, including the people I worked for and the people I worked with," she said.

Abby was five months into her role as a rental property manager at Ray White Brunswick in Melbourne's inner north.

After taking two days off work to manage morning sickness, Abby returned to her desk in the office and discovered something odd.

She couldn't log onto her computer.

Moments later, Abby's boss called her into his office and terminated her employment.

"I burst into tears," she said.

"I was shocked, I was upset … I thought about the baby.

"I just thought, 'I haven't done anything wrong, why am I being let go?'"

Abby said she had never received warnings she wasn't performing.

More than 100 women have told Four Corners they lost work after becoming pregnant or having a child.

Some were employed at Australia's biggest companies, and nearly a quarter worked in the public sector.

Together, the cases reveal the problem is far bigger than a few bad bosses.

After analysing dozens of cases, Four Corners has established a collection of tactics used to push mothers out of the workforce, revealing an unwritten playbook used by employers.

Fired after being publicly praised by the company on social media

In the weeks before Abby was let go, she had no idea her job was at risk.

Then, in her first trimester, she asked to work remotely for a few hours to manage morning sickness.

Her request was denied by the office manager.

Instead, Abby was told a new policy required employees to give a day's notice to work from home.

"It [was] quite disappointing, because it's obviously not something that you can predict," she said.

Still, Abby felt secure in her job and wasn't worried.

A week before Ray White Brunswick terminated Abby's employment, the real estate agency publicly praised her on Instagram.

When she was fired, Abby said she was told it was partly due to a company restructure.

She took her employer to the Fair Work Commission seeking compensation, but mediation failed, so she is now suing Ray White Brunswick in the Federal Court.

Her lawyer, Laura Blandthorn from Solidarity Solicitors, alleged Abby had experienced "very clear, direct discrimination based on her pregnancy".

She said Abby was initially told her employment was terminated due to an "office restructure", then was later advised it was due to "performance reasons".

Ray White Brunswick's director Jamil Allouche declined an interview with Four Corners.

In a statement, he said: "Abby's employment was terminated for the reasons that we discussed with her at the time her employment ended.

"Those reasons related to her behaviour in the workplace, reported to me by other employees and observed by me as the decision-maker.

"As the matter is currently before the court, I am not able to comment further, and I will allow the process to take its course."

Mr Allouche did not respond to further questions about what that behaviour was.

Lawyer Susan Price, from the Working Women's Centre NSW, has represented women facing pregnancy discrimination for decades and said in other cases, criticism of a new or expectant mother's performance in the workplace was common.

"You do see what I describe as a real shift in attitude towards a worker once they've come into the workplace and announced they're pregnant," she said.

"It's almost like that worker has now been identified as a problem and things that were absolutely fine before, start to get criticised, their performance gets managed."

Twenty-one women told Four Corners they had been let go after becoming pregnant, only to find someone else had taken their job, and in some cases under a different title.

It's a practice lawyers call a "sham restructure".

Zana Bytheway, executive director of employment rights legal centre, JobWatch, said it can sometimes happen to women on maternity leave.

"They may find their job has been made redundant, but it's often a construct," she said.

"Often they found that their actual position … is still there."

Melbourne mother highlights vulnerability of casual workers

The experience of factory worker, Challis, who asked to keep her surname private, shows casual workers can be especially vulnerable to pregnancy discrimination.

For two years, Challis worked in a Melbourne warehouse for NewCold, one of the world's largest refrigerated food companies.

She worked 40 hours a week in regular evening shifts, arranged through labour hire firm OzStaff.

After she fell pregnant, OzStaff insisted on three separate medical certificates confirming that she was fit to work in the warehouse freezer.

Doctors repeatedly cleared her for all her duties, but Challis was left without work and chasing shifts.

When she was eventually rostered back on two weeks later, her hours were cut to 24 hours a week, reducing her pay.

"[The message] was, you take what you're given or you get nothing," she said.

In her second trimester, Challis requested morning shifts because she had developed pelvic pain in the evenings.

Challis said she offered to continue to work in the evening if that was not possible, but after working one more shift, she was never rostered again.

"Not being able to work and make an income for myself and to save money to have a child was really, really hard," she said.

Catherine Hemingway, associate director of Victoria Legal Aid's equity law program, which is representing Challis in a mediation, said casual workers were protected under anti-discrimination law.

"It's not lawful to treat someone less favourably because they're pregnant or because they have caring responsibilities," she said.

"This applies to all workers."

Challis and her lawyers are taking her employers to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

NewCold told Four Corners it was committed to providing a "respectful" workplace but would not comment further given the ongoing legal action.

"[NewCold] takes all allegations of discrimination, including pregnancy discrimination, very seriously," a company spokeswoman said.

OzStaff declined to comment as the matter was before the commission.

Research shows very few women take legal action in response to pregnancy discrimination, and those who do face a long wait for their cases to be heard.

New figures obtained by Four Corners reveal nearly half of Sex Discrimination Act complaints resolved in 2025-26 took more than a year to be finalised, up from 1 per cent in 2020-21.

Last year, the commission received the highest number of pregnancy discrimination complaints in more than a decade.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody acknowledged the long waitlist was difficult for complainants because it stopped them from being able to find another job or to move on.

"We have sought additional funding to deal with that [and] so far, we haven't been successful," she said.

Construction worker leaves industry she once loved

The construction industry has been vocal about struggling to hire women, launching support groups and glossy campaigns to get them onto worksites.

Katelyn Dower was one of them.

She developed the skills to operate cranes and eventually landed a job at Allied Cranes Hire in the NSW Hunter region.

"I loved the challenge and just being at a different job and doing a different thing every single day," she said.

After Katelyn fell pregnant with her twin boys, she said she told her manager she could do anything but work on a Franna crane.

"It kind of swings around belly height and there's a lot of pulling and pushing," she said.

"Ligaments, when you're pregnant, all loosen up and it's not as easy to do that sort of work."

Katelyn said there was other work that was safe for her to do, but she was still rostered on the Franna crane.

Text messages show Katelyn raised concerns with her employer on multiple occasions.

She said she was then threatened with termination, which the company denied.

"I gave birth to the twins … [prematurely] at 35 weeks," she said.

"I had a very traumatic birth [after] all the stress from the whole work situation."

Katelyn started legal action with the help of her union, arguing a woman is legally entitled to a safe job, but the company went into liquidation.

"At the time, Allied Crane Hire disputed the allegations made by Ms Dower," a company spokeswoman said.

"The matter was never finalised, and the allegations were not the subject of a final determination against the company."

Katelyn said she has since quit the construction industry.

"I don't think I'll ever go back, and it's robbed me of a career that I used to love a lot," she said.

Women pursuing legal action face 'daunting' hurdles

The Fair Work Commission is one of the agencies that handles employment claims involving pregnancy discrimination, but it is overloaded with cases.

The FWC said ongoing funding cuts had forced it to constrain some operations, including limiting settlement conferences to one hour.

Ms Price said the new processes could disadvantage women alleging pregnancy discrimination, especially if they were fighting major companies with legal teams behind them.

"I think it can be really daunting and a factor that makes that woman go, 'You know what? I don't think I want to put time and effort into pursuing my claim'," she said.

Advocacy groups, lawyers, academics and other organisations are now calling for more legislative protection.

Abby agreed.

She's heavily pregnant and remains unemployed after losing her job with Ray White Brunswick.

It's unlikely she will finalise her matter before her daughter is born.

"[I hope] she never has to deal with something like this," Abby said.

"[I hope] she can work in an industry or have a career she loves and she's good at, and she can thrive, and that she never has to experience another male getting rid of her because she's having a baby."

Watch Four Corners' full investigation, The Pregnancy Penalty, on Monday at 8:30pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.