More US women are filing employment pregnancy discrimination lawsuits despite the declining birth rates in this country. A female worker may receive good or excellent evaluations throughout her employment up until the time she notifies the employer that she is pregnant. Her employer’s satisfaction with her work thereafter may abruptly change. Employers who are unscrupulous may attempt to illegally circumvent the laws mandating certain leave time and work accommodations for the employee’s pregnancy, including medical conditions related to the pregnancy and post birth pregnancy leave. Shameless employers simply do not want to be flexible to accommodate the worker for her pregnancy in any manner and prefer to just terminate the relationship.
Performance Evaluations
If you received good performance evaluations prior to your informing your employer that you are pregnant, and your employer subsequently gives you poor performance evaluations, expressing dissatisfaction with the quality or quantity of your work, you should call this law office today for a free consultation. I have represented both public and private employees who were terminated because of their pregnancy and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. I have successfully represented pregnant employees of both public and private employers, who were fired or were unfairly placed on a “PIP” and given a warning to improve or risk termination. This undeserved downturn in evaluations is a ruse sometimes utilized by employers to have a trumped-up justification to fire a pregnant employee.
A Bogus Excuse for Termination and an Exploitation of Women
When a NJ employer retains a female worker to perform services with financial benefits flowing to the employer, then callously terminates the employment relationship upon learning of the worker’s pregnancy, it is an exploitation of women.
In a devious scheme to avoid lawsuits, unethical crafty NJ employers sometimes implement a hidden agenda in an attempt to later allege the pregnant worker was fired due to unsatisfactory work performance and not because of her pregnancy. The worker thereafter for the first time may receive warnings or be placed on a “PIP”, a Performance Improvement Plan, with a criteria an employee may or may not be able to meet, whether pregnant or not. Sometimes, this may be done just to wear the employee down, and encourage her to submit a resignation letter, rather than stay in a workplace that has grown hostile or where she is being harassed.
In NJ, employment pregnancy discrimination lawsuits may be filed directly in NJ State Superior Court under the NJ statute, the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. An employment pregnancy discrimination plaintiff can therefore avoid the time consuming pre-requisites under the federal law, which imposes a requirement that one first file an administration claim with an agency before even is permitted to file papers in court. Additionally, statistics bear out that discrimination plaintiffs fare better in state court than they do in federal court.
The Pregnant Women’s Fairness Act amended the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD) to specifically include pregnancy as a designated protected class.
Pregnancy employment discrimination involves treating a female employee unfavorably because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to her pregnancy or childbirth. Prior to The Pregnant Women’s Fairness Act, NJ plaintiffs alleging pregnancy discrimination, if filing a claim under the NJ law, had to file under sex and or disability discrimination legal theories, both which are protected classes. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination now specifically includes pregnancy as its own designated protected class.
I have represented both public and private employees who were terminated because of their pregnancy and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. If you think you will be fired, or have been fired because of your pregnancy, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation.
If You Quit Your Job, You May Lose Right to Prevail in a Lawsuit
In many instances of discrimination, if you quit your job, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed. If you are thinking of quitting, or think you will be fired, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options in the safest way for you.
Let me fight for you. If you think you may have been discriminated against, contact Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law today for a free consultation. I accept discrimination cases from all over New Jersey.
What You Can Do
I am an aggressive and compassionate employment law attorney who is experienced in successfully representing persons who were discriminated against at work. I am successful in bringing employee lawsuits against governmental entities and private employers and recovering money for victims of age, race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and other discrimination.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.