The tough economic times - and more generous maternity benefits - appear to be prompting increasing numbers of firms to fire pregnant women or deny them their full entitlements.

There were 119 'pregnancy- related' complaints lodged with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in the first nine months of the year - up from 72 for the whole of 2007, and 95 last year.

That is the highest since records began in 2004 and represents a doubling of the rate per month compared with 2007.

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