Pregnant women are five times more likely to be sacked, harassed or sidelined at work since the start of the recession, the TUC revealed yesterday.

In a new report it said that, despite legislation, as many as 9,000 expectant mothers had found it necessary to take their bosses to a tribunal in the last five years.

“The law might have changed 40 years ago but the way many employers behave when they discover an employee is pregnant suggests they are stuck in a 1970s time warp — back to an age when starting a family meant the end of paid work for women,” said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.