A special hotline for reporting pregnancy-related discrimination has received 550 complaints in its first two weeks, reports the Dutch human rights organisation.

It says that it is ‘a big problem’ in the jobs market that pregnant women and new mothers are treated unlike others, saying that so many reports in a short space of time underlines the problem.

It manifests, reports NOS, in a contract not being renewed or holiday required to be taken in place of maternity leave, for example.

The organisation – the College voor de Rechten van de Mens – believes 65,000 women are discriminated against each year in the Netherlands due to pregnancy.

It started a telephone hotline for women to report their claims on 22 May, which has had calls mostly from women with flexible and temporary contracts.