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As a duty solicitor in a medium sized firm, I fully appreciate the need to remove ghosts from the system but not at the loss of employment rights and specifically the right to request part time work after returning from maternity leave.

I've been saying all along that this was discriminatory to working mums who are trying to keep a foot in the door of duty solicitor work whilst caring for a young family. Its a fact that more mums than dads work part time. Its really hard to get 7 hours contract work per day, meaning that any solicitor not working more than 2 to 3 days per week is not going to meet the 14 hour rule.

How do you approach your member of staff who was happy working two days (with no other form of employment) and say "hey sorry you are not compliant so I am forced to dismiss you or reduce your salary as you cannot go on the rota"?

Being a duty solicitor and falling pregnant will be tantamount to kissing your duty status goodbye. There is no way you can come back for sufficient hours with the massive costs of child care and the low pay on offer.

The sooner that there is a test case on this, the better.