Pregnant Then Screwed: Fired For ‘Daring To Procreate’

Women should not have to dare to procreate. Nor be afraid for their jobs based upon their pregnancy or parental status.

Attention must be paid! The Mummies are marching!

Huh?

“Becoming a mother is the single most damaging thing you can do to your career,” wrote a UK woman in the Telegraph a year ago. “It has been four years since I lost my job for daring to procreate. My employer told me, by voicemail, that my contract was being pulled, the day after I had informed her I was pregnant.”

For women in the US workplace, this story is all too common: the stats bear this out.

Although pregnancy discrimination in employment violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”), which is part of Title VII, this doesn’t stop some employers from being “paternalistic,” to use a euphemism.

Or having outright discriminatory animus.

The job could harm your fetus — you’re fired!

Sponsored

I posted earlier this year about an EEOC suit filed against a Florida corporation which operates a chain of furniture stores and distributions centers nationwide, in which it claimed that a woman was hired as a shop apprentice whose job “required the use of various chemicals to repair furniture.”

The employee later told the shop trainer that that she was pregnant. Uh-oh, pregnant and using chemicals — I smell trouble.  On that same day she was called into a meeting and:

“was asked to confirm that she was pregnant. … the regional shop manager showed [her] a can of lacquer thinner that contained a warning that the contents could potentially pose a risk to a woman or her unborn child, and discussed the warning with [her] … [she] was then told that because she was pregnant, she could no longer work at the facility.”

Fired purportedly for the wellbeing of the fetus.

An alleged “concern” about the health of the employee or fetus — also known as paternalism — and consequent firing of the pregnant employee is illegal. Even genuinely concerned employers should not succumb to myths and fears about disabilities or pregnancy, and should not attempt to “protect” a pregnant employee or her fetus.

Sponsored

Uh-oh — she may start a family soon!

Perhaps worse are the one-third of employers (as reported in the UK) who were found to have discriminated against women job candidates “who they fear ‘might start a family soon.’”

One-third!

“The next person to get pregnant should stay home and consider herself fired!”

The same, of course, happens in the US.

Recall from my old post: “Do not get pregnant, you have too many children, and the next person to get pregnant should stay home and consider herself fired!”

This is what a California wholesale distributer of orchids allegedly told female employees at staff meetings, according to an EEOC lawsuit. The suit also alleged that “pregnant employees were not reinstated or rehired when they attempted to return to work following the birth of their children but were discharged from the company.”

Don’t hire a woman recently engaged or married!

In the UK, 28 percent of employers said that “they have or would avoid hiring a woman for a role if they had recently become engaged or married. A similar number said that they would have done the same for women with young children.”

What are your child rearing plans? Are you pregnant now?

The Equality and Human Rights Commission in the UK found recently that one third “of senior decision makers thought it was acceptable to ask women about their plans regarding children at the recruitment stage. Nearly 60 percent wrongly believed women had to disclose if they were already pregnant when applying for a job.”

One UK employment lawyer said that “[a] huge shift needs to take place before women feel they are not penali[z]ed for wanting both a career and children.”

The Director of the UK’s Maternity Action said: “It is 2018, yet one of the biggest barriers to gender equality in the workplace is the discrimination that mothers face. We want everyone to add their voice, sign our petition and encourage Government to act now to effect lasting change.”

American women know this all too well.

Why am I harping on the UK? Seems that the US has enough of its own problems!

For good reason.  A “huge shift” may very well be coming down the road.

Last year, women in Britain decided to make a stand and organized “March of the Mummies.” It was organized by a group called Pregnant Then Screwed.

Wow.

The website for Pregnant Then Screwed declares that “This is a safe space for mothers to tell their stories of pregnancy or maternity discrimination and to receive the support and protection they need. … Pregnant Then Screwed protects, supports and promotes the rights of mothers who suffer the effects of systemic, cultural, and institutional pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

Why were the mummies marching?

March of the Mummies was a demonstration by Pregnant Then Screwed which took place on Tuesday 31st October 2017 at 12 midday in 6 cities across the UK and one city in California. The demonstration demanded recognition, respect and change for working mums, and dads.”

In California too! (Although “mummies” is likely not the preferred nomenclature in California).

The march was in support of the group’s five demands: to increase the “statute of limitations” to file a claim with the relevant employment tribunal from its current three months; to make employers report on the number of “flexible working requests” made and granted; to provide six weeks parental leave at 90 percent salary to both parents; to provide self-employed workers access to statutory shared parental pay; and to subsidize childcare from the age of six months old, rather than the current three years.

Subsidized childcare?  Wow.  Pretty darn progressive as compared to the good ol’ USA.

Takeaway

Women should not have to dare to procreate. Nor be afraid for their jobs based upon their pregnancy or parental status. But they are — for good reason.

Maybe it’s time for American mummies to march.


richard-b-cohenRichard B. Cohen has litigated and arbitrated complex business and employment disputes for almost 40 years, and is a partner in the NYC office of the national “cloud” law firm FisherBroyles. He is the creator and author of his firm’s Employment Discrimination blog, and received an award from the American Bar Association for his blog posts. You can reach him at Richard.Cohen@fisherbroyles.com and follow him on Twitter at @richard09535496.