What you need to know
- The General Scheme of the Pregnancy Loss Leave Bill was published in July 2026.
- The right envisaged under the Bill is for five days of paid leave for an employee who experiences a medically certified pregnancy loss before 23 weeks’ gestation.
- Employees are entitled to the leave as a day-one right but entitlement to payment is subject to a 13-week service requirement.
- The pay rate is 70% of the employee’s gross normal earnings, capped at €110 per day. This mirrors the structure used for statutory sick leave pay.
- Leave can be split or taken as one continuous block. However, it must be used within 56 weeks of pregnancy loss.
- Employers who already operate a pregnancy loss leave scheme that is, taken as a whole, more favourable to employees would be exempt from the obligations under the statutory scheme.
The General Scheme of the Pregnancy Loss Leave Bill was published in July 2026. It aims to bridge the entitlement gap that currently exists between women who experience a pregnancy loss prior to 23 weeks’ gestation and post 23 weeks’ gestation. In the latter instance, a woman is entitled to:
- 26 weeks of maternity leave and benefit, and
- A further 16 weeks of unpaid maternity leave
In the case of a woman who experiences pregnancy loss prior to 23 weeks’ gestation, there is currently no statutory leave entitlement.
The Bill has appeared in the autumn legislation programme for 2026, listed for priority drafting. Leave for early pregnancy loss has been on the legislative agenda for some time. With Government support, it is likely that it will eventually become a statutory right for all employees. Our Employment Law & Benefits team examines the General Scheme and highlights the key preparatory steps employers should take in advance of the Bill becoming law.
Pregnancy Loss Leave
The General Scheme of the Bill provides that an employee shall be entitled to leave in the event of a pregnancy loss. An employee is entitled to this leave if the loss occurs before the completion of 23 weeks’ gestation. To qualify , the loss must be certified in writing by a registered medical practitioner.
The leave may be taken by the employee on any day on which they would ordinarily work. This is designed to ensure that part-time or irregular hours workers will receive the leave for days they would ordinarily work. The General Scheme envisages that this may be subject to change, however.
The leave itself is a ‘day one’ right. Payment for the leave, however, is subject to a continuous service requirement. Nothing in the proposed Bill shall exclude the leave entitlement where the pregnancy loss occurs as a result of a termination carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018.
The leave entitlement will operate without prejudice to any other qualifying entitlement that an employee may have under the Maternity Protection Acts and Sick Leave Act 2022. In this way, an employee is entitled to use their pregnancy loss leave and also statutory sick leave without issue.
The leave period will not be less than 5 working days, which may be taken consecutively or non-consecutively.
The leave entitlement may be taken no later than a period of 56 weeks from the date, or approximate date, of the pregnancy loss, as certified by a medical practitioner. This is designed to allow the employee to take the leave when it is needed e.g. around the anniversary of a loss. The General Scheme envisages that this may be amended during drafting depending on consultation with stakeholders.
The employee shall not be disentitled to the leave solely because the employer had not been informed of the pregnancy prior to the loss.
Payment for leave
The employer shall pay the employee leave if the employee has completed 13 weeks of continuous service with the employer.
The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism, and Employment may make regulations for the purposes of prescribing the daily rate of payment for leave, which may specify the percentage rate of employee’s pay, up to a maximum daily amount at which leave taken will be paid. However, the intention is that, via statutory instrument, an employee will be entitled to 70% of their gross normal earnings for their leave entitlement up to a maximum of €110 per day. The entitlement would therefore match that of statutory sick leave.
Non-application
The obligations under the Bill do not apply to an employer who provides their employees with a qualifying pregnancy loss leave scheme. To qualify, the terms of the employer’s scheme must offer benefits that are, as a whole, “more favourable” to the employee than the statutory scheme. These benefits are evaluated over a reference period specified within the employer’s plan.
An employer’s discharge of obligations under the Sick Leave Act 2022 or any more favourable sick pay scheme does not count as fulfilling obligations under the proposed Bill as pregnancy loss leave and sick leave are separate.
In determining whether a pregnancy loss leave scheme is more favourable than the statutory scheme, the following will be taken into consideration:
- The period of service of an employee required before the leave is payable
- The number of days that an employee is absent before the leave is payable
- The period for which leave is payable
- The amount of leave payable, and
- The reference period of the scheme
Employee protections
Head 10 of the General Scheme introduces an amendment to Section 21 Maternity Protection Acts 1994-1998 which would bring leave for pregnancy loss within the suite of protections provided for under the Acts.
There are anti-penalisation measures set out at Head 8. Similar provisions are found across other legislation, e.g. Carer’s Leave Act 2001, Parental Leave Acts.
It is proposed that Section 6(2) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 will be amended to ensure that where an employee is dismissed wholly or mainly from exercising their entitlement to pregnancy loss leave, this will be deemed automatically to be an unfair dismissal.
The WRC will be the arbiter of breaches of the proposed Act.
Preparatory steps for employers
There are a number of steps that employers can take now to prepare for the realisation of this prospective new employee right.
- Review and update existing leave, absence and bereavement policies to identify where updates may be needed if the legislation is enacted.
- Prepare payroll and record-keeping systems to ensure that the payment and leave periods can be tracked and fulfilled without issue.
- Prepare managers to respond sensitively to pregnancy loss disclosures.
- Consider whether to offer a more generous approach to pregnancy loss leave than the proposed legal minimum.
- Monitor the legislative process.
Employers should seek expert legal advice to understand their potential obligations under the proposed Bill as it moves through the legislative process.
Contact our Employment Law & Benefits team
The content of this article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or other advice.