NEED ADVICE. JOB ISSUES AND PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION.

[laura1985]

I am 37 weeks and 3 days now! However I am having some major issues with my employer, or shall I say FORMER employer. Let me give a little background:

This pregnancy is obviously considered high risk since I have had 5 previous miscarriages and no living children. I've been sick on and off the whole time. I've had lots of doctor appts and have been monitored closely. I waited until I was 10 weeks to let my job know about my pregnancy. The owner of the company I worked for seemed  very understanding, especially since his daughter also works there and was just a mere few weeks behind me in her pregnancy.  However, his sister treated me awful. She acted like I had some horrible disease. He lets her run the show a lot up there.

Another girl left in Oct to have her baby and was told her job may or may not be there when she got back as we only have 37 employees and are not covered under FMLA (I live in TX BTW). When she wanted to return, they told her that her position had been filled, which I knew was untrue but didn't say anything cause its not my business. A few weeks back they started pulling the same thing with me. I told them that I was being induced on the 12th of April and would only take 3 weeks off as that is all I can afford. Nothing has been put in writing, but I was told "if there is a desk open you can come back".

I had some issues with my pregnancy the last two weeks and have been in preterm labor. I'm dilated to a 3 and 95% effaced. My doctor put me on bed rest for a week, but gave me pr omission this past Monday to go back to work. I text messaged my supervisor to let him know I was coming in. He texted me back to "stay home and you are a liability right now until you give birth." When I showed up at work Tuesday morning, my supervisor told me to go home. He stated that I could only return once I gave birth and that its a liability with me being there right now. I was baffled and thought right off the bat that this was pregnancy discrimination. They had taken all the work off my desk and said I couldn't wait there to talk to the owner as he wasn't in and I had no work to do. I took my personal belongings and stated I would call the owner when he got in to find out about coming back and giving him my paperwork from the doctor. I then clocked out and left. I was never able to get the owner on the phone that day. I was sent to voice mail every time.

The next day I started getting text messages from the vp of the company asking why I was not at work. I explained to him what my supervisor stated. He told me to call the office. I have all these texts saved btw. I talked with the owner. He stated HE never said I couldn't come back and that my supervisor was out of line. He said that I could not come back however because he had reassigned all my files and he couldn't give me anymore because my schedule is so unpredictable with my doctors appts. He said my paycheck for that week would be there that Thursday with my vacation time on it as well. He stated after the baby is born, that I can come back once I am released by my doctor. I was not able to make it in Thurs to get my check as I got held up at the doctors office for hours, which I let him know and he said no problem and to come in Fri. When I showed up Fri to get it, the owner was not there and his sister wouldn't let me in the building. She handed me my check in an envelope and walked back inside. There was a letter from her attached to my check stating this was confirming I voluntarily left my job on Tuesday and ended my employment with them. I DID NOT leave voluntarily. I was told not to come back. A good friend of mine who does HR told me to never talk to them again, go and file unemployment this Monday and to get an atty to file a lawsuit.

I am calling an attorney tomorrow and filing for unemployment. Do you ladies think that I have any grounds to actually get unemployment and file a lawsuit? I've never file for unemployment in my life so I am kinda lost here. THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY RESPONSES!

[martikadragoon]

I think that you definitely have grounds for a lawsuit.

LosingMyMind is correct and you should take her advice! :)

[Linzola1]

It dosnt sound like you worked  for a respectable company... First off the VP using text to get a hold of you is very unprofessional and as for a lawsuite i think you def have one.

[LosingMyMindInGA]

That company sounds like a realy piece of work.  Frankly I would NOT want to go back there but *I* personally think you have grounds to sue the crap out of them for discrimination.  I worked for a small company and they had less than 10 employees but they abided by the FMLA.  I would push this as far as you are comfortable doing so.  I would suggest that you write a letter to the OWNER of the company, detailing EVERYTHING you have put in this post. Start the timeline from you telling them you were pregnant until now, detail every little thing.  I would ensure that you put in no uncertain terms that you DID NOT voluntarily leave that company, that you were forced out.  Have the letter notarized (2 copies) and send the owner one copy via certified mail with return receipt.  One rule of thumb in things like this is that if it isn't in writing it didn't happen.  This way you give the owner a chance to rectify things before dropping the bomb of a lawyer on him.  You can point out in yoru letter that you will be consulting an attorney to find out what your next course of action will be and that if you have not heard anything back by a certain date that you can only assume that the company is not going to do anything.  Good luck.  I would defianetly try to find a better palce to work...there's no telling what kind of morons they will be about you taking time off for a sick baby.

If you wanted to you could take a lawsuit so far as to ask for damages for the unnecessary stress during your pregnancy when you are already having complications.

[msteri]

Hi. I'm so sorry that you are going through this right now. I hope everything is going well with your appointments and that your baby is ok first of all. Second, if you still have the text msgs and the note from your doctor, that is proof that you did not abandon your job. I do believe you have grounds for unemployment because you were basically fired even though they are trying to make it seem as if you quit your job. It definitely sounds like pregnancy discrimination to me. If your doctor says you are ok to work then I don't believe they have any right to say you cannot.

I just finalized my maternity leave at my job after requesting a meeting in December 2009. I didn't want anything to be done last minute, but my boss dragged her feet for a bit and then finally took action in the end which I am grateful for but the uncertainty did cause undue stress and I can only imagine how much stress you are enduring because of this situation. I would follow the advice of your friend and take care of yourself.