Pregnancy discrimination ‘blatant’, law professor says

Female cricket players are reportedly being asked to declare their pregnancy status in a move that’s being labelled as ‘blatantly discriminatory’. 

The Australian newspaper reports the move by Cricket Australia takes place before the players sign their one-year contracts.

Associate Professor Belinda Smith from the Sydney Law School told Tony Jones the Sex Discrimination Act is unequivocal. 

But she said pregnancy discrimination was remarkably commonplace and she wasn’t surprised.

‘On the face of it, it’s blatantly discriminatory,’ she said.

‘Unless there’s some odd loophole they’ve found on the face of it, it looks like they’ve been poorly advised.

‘I wish I was surprised, it’s shocking on the one hand but it’s still remarkably commonplace.’

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Cricket Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard says the policy has been in place for a while and is about duty of care after the first trimester.

He said no one outside of the doctor would know before the first trimester.

‘We’ve got to walk that balance between confidentiality and duty of care to the player,’ he said.

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