Getting Laid off day after notifying employer that I'm pregnant
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Anonymous
| Yesterday I officially told HR that I was pregnant and requested the paperwork for filing STD. I work for a smallish company and the project I was on we also found out yesterday is ending next week. Today I was notified that my employment is ending when my project ends. I have been with the company for 4 1/2 years. Is this legal?? They have other employees "on the bench" waiting for more projects to come in, and my skills are in demand, so I really don't buy their reasons for letting me go, "we have no work for you now and don't forsee any in the near future". I just can't believe this happened and am in shock. My performance has been excellent and have never had any issues so this is a real shock. |
Anonymous
| How many people in your company? Were others laid off? What do you mean about having others on the bench? |
Anonymous
| there are about 150 people in the company, no one else was laid off today, I think they let go of a few people earlier this week for performance reasons. "On the bench" is a cosulting term for people who are kept around waiting for other projects while still getting paid to do nothing basically. some smart firms actually use those people to help with proposals, etc. but in this company they sat around doing nothing. |
Anonymous
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Employment lawyer here. Ask yourself a hard question, OP. Do you really and truly believe you were laid off because of your pregnancy? If the answer is yes, then you should talk to a lawyer to see if you can prove it. If the answer is no but you are just pissed off, you won't have a case. It's not illegal to lay off a pregnant woman, it's illegal to lay off a woman because she is pregnant. That's a big distinction.
If you got laid off literally the day after you told them, I'm thinking that your layoff was probably in the works before they knew you were pregnant. Obviously in that case the layoff has nothing to do with the pregnancy so it's not illegal, just an unlucky coincidence. But again, if you have true reason to believe that the layoff was motivated by your pregnancy, it's worth consulting an attorney. |
Anonymous
| Thanks pp, I need to think about this some more, right now I am in shock and the crappiest part is that my I still need to deliver something to the client on Tues before I leave! |
Anonymous
| Wow, OP I am so sorry. That sounds so incredibly crappy. I hope there is a silver lining to this for you and you can enjoy your pregnancy. |
Anonymous
| I would just not show up anymore. |
Anonymous
HR person here. I concur with the Employment Atty. If they had paperwork to hand you today I would suspect that this layoff has been in the works for some time. |
Anonymous
| Oh there was no paperwork, she told me over the phone after I asked what my new project would be. |
Anonymous
OP here again, one other thing I just remembered from the phone conversation with HR today...she said that until yesterday when she found out the contract had not been renewed, she thought she didn't have to worry about me for a few more months. So that proves they had not thought about letting me go until that day.... |
Anonymous
I am in consulting so this is my understanding of your situation: 1. On Wed you found out that your current project was being cancelled - it will be completed next week. 2. On Wed you told your employer that your are pregnant and requested the paperwork for filing STD 3. You have been employed with this company of 150 employees for 4+ years and have always had excellent performance reviews 4. I am assuming there are others on your current project (?) and that none of them were laid off (?) If they did not expect for your project to be cancelled and you had no performance issues, they would have no reason to lay you off - it would actually be pretty silly as you are a revenue stream - so your lay-off would not have been in the works as others have said. I have only once heard of a company laying off someone who was staffed with no performance issues but the company was "right sizing" - but that is a different situation. I disagree that it is an unlucky coincidence and would consult and employment lawyer. |
Anonymous
So they got the news that your project was ending, and then later that day got the news that you were pregnant.... and had an hour or so to think about it and figured, "Well, she's pregnant anyhow, and the work is over, let's just let her go, that's nice and tidy!"?? |
Anonymous
that's pretty much how it happened.... |
Anonymous
| I'm sorry that really sucks. I have heard of other companies warning people "not to get pregnant....." as conditions of promotions..... All sorts of sketchiness.... Regardless, if you are posting about this on this public forum I think your basic instinct must be telling you there is something "more" to this situation and that your gut instinct is right that this was *not* a coincidence that it happened the day after you broke the news..... Do you have communications in writing that you have memorializing what they said? It sounded like the layoff was over the phone w/o witnesses? I would at least try to leverage some sort of severance package out of this (I mean, I doubt you want to work there after THIS even if they let you keep job) and talk informally to a lawyer for sure..... Good luck! This really sucks. |
Anonymous
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Employment lawyer again. Keep in mind that your pregnancy doesn't have to be the sole reason they fired you, it just has to be a motivating factor without which they wouldn't have fired you.
I'm not trying to be discouraging but I will say this: I represent employers and in my experience there is a hyper-awareness of the pitfalls of firing a pregnant woman. Even non-lawyers and non-HR people know that this is a minefield. I often have to reassure my clients that it really is OK to terminate someone, if I know they have the evidence to back it up. It would surprise me to hear of a company where not one of the managers or HR people thought this was a bad idea. Unless they know they can prove that they had a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for the layoff. I'm not saying people don't go off half-cocked, but in this day and age it's unusual. I do get the sense that there's a lot of nuance to your consulting arrangement that I don't understand, which could of course change the picture. |