🚫 Bans on employment during pregnancy
In brief
A ban on employment means that during pregnancy (or the breastfeeding period) you may not carry out certain activities at all, or only to a limited extent, because they could endanger you or your child. There are two kinds: the general (workplace-related) ban on employment, which follows directly from the law (e.g. for certain hazardous substances, heavy work, night work, overtime), and the individual medical ban on employment, which a doctor issues if, in the doctor's judgement, continuing to work would endanger the life or health of mother or child. In both cases you continue to receive your salary in the form of so-called maternity protection pay (Mutterschutzlohn).
Step by step
- Request a risk assessmentYour employer must carry out or update a workplace-specific risk assessment immediately after being notified of the pregnancy (§ 10 MuSchG).
- Have the workplace adjustedCheck together with your employer whether changing working conditions or moving to a different workplace makes continued employment possible (takes priority over a general ban).
- Obtain a medical certificateIf you have health complaints that go beyond the usual pregnancy complaints, have an individual ban on employment certified by a doctor.
- Submit the certificateSubmit the certificate to your employer; from that point on they may no longer employ you beyond the certified limits.
- Check maternity protection payCheck whether your employer pays maternity protection pay during the ban on employment at the level of your previous average earnings (they are reimbursed for the expenses through the health insurance fund's U2 levy).
Deadlines
- A general ban on employment applies only insofar as changing working conditions or a reasonable alternative workplace is not possible – the employer must examine these milder measures first (§ 9, § 13 MuSchG).
- A medical ban on employment is not a sick note (incapacity for work) – payment is not made via sickness benefit but in full as maternity protection pay by the employer, who is reimbursed through the U2 levy procedure.
- Overtime, night work (generally 8 pm to 6 am) and work on Sundays and public holidays are also generally prohibited for pregnant women, with narrow statutory exceptions and only with express consent.
In depth · legal basis, figures and practice – for advisers and professionals
Structure of §§ 9–16 MuSchG
The MuSchG distinguishes the general protective principle (§ 9: unacceptable risk must be excluded), specific bans and limits for certain activities and working conditions (§§ 11 f. for pregnant women, §§ 12 f. for breastfeeding women, covering among other things lifting and carrying loads, hazardous substances, piecework, night work and overtime) and the individual medical ban on employment (§ 16 MuSchG), which is based on a medical assessment of the individual case and can be issued independently of the general bans.
Maternity protection pay
Under § 18 MuSchG, in the case of a ban on employment (general or medical) the woman receives so-called maternity protection pay (Mutterschutzlohn) at the level of her average earnings over the last three settled calendar months before the start of the ban. The employer initially bears these costs but is, as a rule, reimbursed in full by the health insurance fund through the U2 levy procedure (§ 1 AAG) – the ban on employment is thus meant to disadvantage neither the woman nor, economically, smaller businesses.
Relationship to incapacity for work
A ban on employment must be legally distinguished from a sick note: it does not certify an illness but an abstract or concrete risk arising from the work itself. The two institutions can occur one after the other or side by side (e.g. a sick note for a separate illness that has nothing to do with the pregnancy).
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