A public sector bank has been accused of disqualifying women pregnant for 12 weeks or more from joining its workforce.

Aituc, the CPI-backed trade union, said Indian Bank had issued a set of “guidelines and criteria for physical fitness for preemployment medical examination” that deem pregnancy beyond 12 weeks a temporary disqualification for a job.

“A woman candidate, who as a result of tests, is found to be pregnant of 12 weeks’ standing or over, should be declared temporarily unfit until the confinement is over,” Aituc quoted the guidelines as saying.

“The candidate should be reexamined for a fitness certificate six weeks after the date of labour, subject to the production of medical certificate of fitness from a registered medical practitioner.”

Aituc has sought finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s intervention on the “regressive” clause that “smacks of the most abhorrent gender prejudice”.

A letter from the union has urged Sitharaman “to look up the above referred guidelines issued by the Indian Bank and initiate immediate action against the officials”.

The Maternity Benefit Act prohibits any discrimination against pregnant women at the workplace. The law mandates maternity leave for working women for 26 weeks for their first two children and for 12 weeks for any children after that.

“Classifying pregnancy as ‘unfit’ is disgracing and dishonouring motherhood. Pregnancy is a natural phenomenon and it is not only the fundamental right of the woman to give birth but also necessary for existence of mankind,” the Aituc letter says.

“Denying or postponing employment on the basis of pregnancy, therefore, is in gross violation to all the legal, constitutional, social and moral commitments.”

The State Bank of India had issued similar guidelines in December 2021. After the matter was raised in Parliament and the Delhi women’s commission issued a notice, the bank withdrew the contentious provision in January.