Wrongful termination in NJ?

What is the name of your state?
The state involved here is NJ. My daughter is about 8 weeks pregnant. She has had medical complications the past two weeks that have caused her to miss a lot of work but she had doctor notes for all of it. The most recent episode required her to stay home for a week and off her feet...and she can't go back to work until Oct. 23. The place where she's worked kept reassuring that she shouldn't worry about the job. BUT...yesterday they called and let her go since she's had to be out so much. Can they do this? She has only worked for them for little more than a month...taking the job just before she even knew she was pregnant and they are a rather small company. The stress of this is cause for concern as stress might cause her further complications and none of us wants to see that happen and see her lose the baby.

Termination of a pregnant employee can be walking a pretty fine line, but they appear to be on the right side of the line, from what you've said.

Although it is illegal to fire someone BECAUSE they are pregnant, an employee who is pregnant can be fired for other reasons, including attendance. Since she has only worked for them for a month she is not entitled to any FMLA protection, and New Jersey does not have a state statute that provides FMLA-like protection to employees. Therefore, it is legal to fire her for attendance violations as long as a non-pregnant employee who missed the same amount of time would also be fired.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not offer her any special privileges. It protects her from being discriminated against because of her pregnancy, but it also provides that she gets treated exactly the same as other employees. Under the PDA, pregnancy is supposed to be transparent. A pregnant employee can be fired, laid off or disciplined for any valid reason for which she would be fired, laid off or disciplined if she were not pregnant.

The fact that she brought doctor's notes does not mean that the employer must count it as an excused absence. From what you've said, it sounds as if she's been absent almost as much as she's been at work. Frankly, I don't know of any employer who would keep her on under those conditions.

Based on what you've posted, I don't see that the employer has violated any laws.