I have an employee who recently had a baby, and is currently on parental leave. I will be doing a performance review soon, and based on performance issues I have decided that she will either receive a pay cut, a reduction in hours, or both. The performance issues have nothing to do with her pregnancy or the resulting leave time. The performance issues were present before both of those things.

I want to make sure that I'm not breaking any discrimination laws. Am I right in thinking that since the pay cut/reduction in hours would have happened whether she was on break or not, that it's okay to do so? A few other non-pregnant, non-parental leave employees will be getting similar reviews with similar results. Do I need to be concerned about this? Thanks!

It's always good to be concerned but so long as it is clearly documented that the demotion/ paycut/ reduced hours would have happened whether she took leave or had a baby or not, it is perfectly legal. Ideally these are objective measures and not more subjective issues like "attitude".