Navigating Legal and Cultural Challenges: How to Support a Pregnant Employee Planning to Marry Abroad?

Kindly help on how to deal with the case of an employee who informs us that she is pregnant but wants to get married in India immediately. However, here in the UAE, it is not legal to get pregnant out of wedlock. What should we do in this case? Please help.

Dear Ruby,

Please instruct the employee to travel to India, get married, and then return to resume her duties. Once she presents the marriage certificate, she will be eligible to take maternity leave.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Thank you for the information. I really appreciate your response. But will it not affect the company knowing the situation of the staff? We all know that getting pregnant in the UAE out of marriage can be grounds for imprisonment or deportation of the staff. Is it advisable not to let her continue to work with the company?

Handling Pregnancy and Marriage in the Workplace

Has the female employee given official information to the company about her pregnancy? Is there any law that stipulates notice to the employer in the case of pregnancy? If not, then officially you do not know about her pregnancy. As soon as you became aware of her pregnancy, you should have advised her to return to India for marriage. Upon her return, 1-2 months later, she can officially inform the company about her impending delivery. Pregnancy could be considered as a "premature delivery."

Of course, for actions like these, you would require support from top management. The course of action depends on her position within the organization, her importance as an employee, etc. Otherwise, the option of suggesting that she resign from her employment always remains.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar