new and fired

[fedup2here]

A woman was hired as office mgr. for a branch office of our company in AR and was 7+ months pregnant. She was told she would only have a 30 day probation for consideration as a permanant employee rather than the 90 days as stated in our handbook and what everyone else had to serve. She was fired almost immediately after 30 days and told it was because of company cut-backs due to money. There have been 2 employees hired since she was hired; one in her office and the other in another office. She received no warnings of any kind for the work she performed being substandard. She was fired 2 hours before quitting time 8 days before her due date. Besides seeming totally cold and heartless has our employer stretched his rights of at will employment? It's a privately owned corporation.

 

[buddy2bear]

Unfortunately, this is a losing battle -- she was hired even though the employer knew she was pregnant -- which it will say was proof the employer did not discriminate based on pregnancy. The employer reduced the "probationary" period because she was pregnant and if they had kept it at 90 days, she would have been on maternity leave, which would not allow them to evaluate her for the 90 days. She was an at-will employee in her "probationary" period when she was let go. Heartless, calculating, but you would be unable to prove it was illegal as far as I can see.