Discrimination Rights For Pregnant Women

As an attorney defending people from employment discrimination since 1991, the worst discrimination is against a pregnant employee. Harassing or terminating a pregnant woman can be incredibly heinous. Firing a woman who is pregnant leaves her with no income, no hope to find a new job and no health insurance. All that when she most needs to keep her job, her income and medical insurance to take care of hospital and other bills incurred in an expanding family.



Very few employers will hire a woman who is obviously pregnant.



There is going to be time off needed for regular doctor visits. The potential for complications requiring extended time off. The near certainty that delivery of the baby will require weeks of leave. Combined with the possibility that after nurturing her infant the mother will not want to return to the job, makes getting a new job when you are pregnant almost impossible.



Federal, state and local laws do provide some protection from discrimination because of pregnancy. In 1978 Congress amended Title VII to include the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that prohibits discrimination because of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.



Employers cannot treat pregnant women differently, even if they are doing it to try to protect the woman. A classic example was a case brought by the EEOC against the Rustic Inn Crabhouse, near the Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood Airport, in which the restaurant admitted that it had re-assigned a waitress to the cash register because the owners considered carrying the large trays of crabs and walking around while customers were hammering crabs, dangerous for the woman and fetus. In 2000 the Federal 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found the restaurant's policy regarding reassigning pregnant waitresses was direct evidence of pregnancy discrimination.



Of course the restaurant admitted this was their policy, which rarely happens.



Florida law is less clear on pregnancy discrimination because it is not specifically mentioned as a protected category under the Florida Civil Rights Act, Fla. Stat.