Pregnancy Discrimination may occur in any type of job description in terms of not promoting you, not offering you the same opportunities and benefits as other employees, and wrongful termination before or after you give birth. Pregnancy Discrimination may also occur when the employer refuses to make a reasonable and adequate accommodations to the pregnant person's job to enable them to otherwise perform their job.
Disability discrimination also may occur when you are absent from work due to a pregnancy.
If you are out of work a certain time due to a pregnancy, disabilities or complications related to pregnancy, or for doctor's visits related to the pregnancy, or due to a certain health condition related to your pregnancy and find that your employer treated you differently in terms of not offering you the same opportunities and benefits as other employees, or terminates you, you may have a valid claim, for discrimination.
Pregnant women are covered under several federal laws, including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and state laws such as the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. (The New Jersey Family Leave Act allow employees to take unpaid time off from work to take care of a child when there is a birth or adoption or to take care of a sick or disabled relative.) Several prerequisites, including that the employer must employ the requisite number of employees to be subject to the Act, must first be met before an employee becomes eligible under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and before an employee becomes eligible under the New Jersey Family Leave Act. (The FMLA also provides for unpaid medical leave for employees who have serious health conditions that prevent them from performing their jobs temporarily. )
Retaliation
If you complained about pregnancy discrimination or harassment, or that you were being treated differently in terms of your pay, the quality and conditions of your work environment, job assignments, and then you were demoted, terminated, or retaliated against in terms of the quality and conditions of your work environment or job assignments, you may have a valid claim for illegal retaliation for exercising your civil rights.
For a free consultation contact Hope A. Lang at
(201) 599‑9600 with your employment discrimination questions today.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law, represents employees throughout New Jersey in complex employment discrimination lawsuits. She accepts cases from all counties in Northern, Southern, and Central New Jersey and has locations in central, western and northern New Jersey to meet with clients. If you believe that you have been discriminated against due to gender identity or other protected characteristic, such as age, disability, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or national origin, or in retaliation for reporting what you believed to be illegal acts of your employer, she can help you. It is important to know your rights as an employee. |