Four Corners: The Pregnancy Penalty investigates workplace discrimination – Reporter Avani Dias investigates what happens to women at work when they become pregnant or return after childbirth. She examines allegations of firing, demotion and sham redundancies in the episode airing Monday 19 October at 8.30pm on ABC.
The investigation puts individual accounts alongside complaint figures and the barriers women face when seeking a remedy. Decades after the Sex Discrimination Act began, the programme asks why pregnancy and motherhood can still carry a career cost.
From the factory floor to executive roles, women told Four Corners they experienced discrimination while pregnant or after returning to work. More than 100 women contacted the programme with their experiences. Dias reports on the tactics they say employers used and the consequences for their jobs and families.
One organisation tracking the issue across three Australian states recorded 600 complaints about pregnancy discrimination in the last financial year. It says calls have risen significantly over the past two years. Those figures point to a problem that extends beyond one industry or type of workplace.
Experts interviewed by the programme say many women do not pursue a legal claim. For those who do, the process can be complex and expensive, with lengthy delays. That leaves a gap between legal protections on paper and what a worker can realistically enforce while managing pregnancy or a new baby.
Some advocates are calling for a legislative overhaul to address systemic problems. Four Corners examines those proposals while documenting what women say happened when they told employers they were pregnant or returned from leave. Their experiences show why questions about enforcement matter to people making decisions about work and family.
Four Corners: The Pregnancy Penalty airs Monday 19 October 2026 at 8.30pm on ABC and ABC iview.
Read more in TV Central’s ABC coverage. Watch Four Corners on ABC iview.
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