Title VII Pregnancy Discrmination

[Andrews]

State of Washington

My daughter has worked for a dentist for the past 2 1/2 years as his dental assist. She has been an outstanding employee. She is due to deliver her first baby on April 30, 2001. Her husband is a coast guard officer and was transferred to Porttownsend Washington 4 years ago. He has received new orders to be transferred back to San Diego on July 1, 2001. The problem: In January 2001, my daughter told the dentist (her boss) that she would terminate her employment on April 15, 2001 due to preganancy which would be 2 weeks prior to the baby's birth and would not return because of her husband's new orders. The dentist said no, I want you to leave earlier and gave her March 28, 2001 as her last day. She told him that she could not afford to be out of work that long and she wanted to work until April 15. He said I will give you clerical work that you can do from your home from March 28 - April 15. She agreed. On February 16, 2001, the dentist told her that he had moved her last day to March 23 and that he was not going to give her any clerical work to do from home. She has also told me that since she initially told him that she was pregnant that he has been treating her very differently and always brings up her pregnancy in their discussions. He is also very angry with my daughter that her husband is being transferred back to San Diego. 1)What are her rights and 2) what should she do? 3) Is he firing her? Thank you.

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

This is the problem: is Washington an at will employment state? If so, he can terminate her at any time with or without notice. However, even if it is an at will state and he is doing this based on her pregnancy, there might be some violations of federal employment law going on.

Your daughter's problem: to prove it is based on pregnancy discrimination. Does she want to fight this? or perhaps see if she is eligible for unemployment?
http://www.attorneypages.com (they have labor law attorneys who might be able to give you a free consultation).

 

[Andrews]

reply

Thank you for responding. At will or not at will, the federal law is the law. The issue is all regarding her pregnancy. He justifies letting her go early because he thinks preganant woman should not work in their last few months. How would he know?.... He has never had children nor has his wife. Just another note regarding this employer. He has made it known to other employees that he will force another employee who is an elderly person(age 62) into early retirement. She has worked for him for 12 years and now he want to replace her with a "young person". He is cutting her hours in half. The guy is a nutcase. Again thanks for taking time to answer my question.