When you become pregnant, you may be excited about the changes ahead. Unluckily, employers aren’t always pleased to know their employees are pregnant. They may start discriminating against them because of their condition. If you were subject to pregnancy discrimination at the workplace, talk to an attorney about whether you’re eligible for damages. But first, you want to know what actions constitute pregnancy discrimination.

What It Means

Pregnancy discrimination happens when a pregnant worker receives unfavorable treatment from her employer because of pregnancy, childbirth, plans to become pregnant, or pregnancy-related health conditions. For the purposes of the pregnancy discrimination laws, pregnant workers include pregnant employees (both temporary and permanent), unpaid interns, and job applicants. Discrimination takes many forms. Prevalent examples of actions that can be considered pregnancy discrimination at work include:

  • Discriminating against a woman because she needs to pump, breastfeed, or treat a medical condition related to her breastfeeding

  • Denying a woman time off for childbirth or a medical condition related to childbirth, if the woman is lawfully-titled to take that time off

  • Declining to provide reasonable accommodations for a woman's pregnancy-related disabilities

  • Demoting or firing an employee because she developed a medical condition related to her pregnancy

  • Declining to employ a woman only because she’s pregnant or might become pregnant someday

  • Refusing to promote a woman employee because she's pregnant

  • Denying benefits or bonuses to an employee because of their pregnancy

  • Giving a worker new job assignments that involve less pay because of her pregnancy

The federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) and California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibit any kind of pregnancy discrimination at work. According to these laws, a person can recover any benefits, lost income, legal fees, or costs incurred due to pregnancy discrimination. Employers who discriminate against employees based on pregnancy may also be subject to penalties.

FEHA applies to employers with five or more workers and provides that it's illegal for these employers to discriminate against any worker because of a pregnancy. The Act also forbids co-workers or employers from harassing employees because they're pregnant. California law treats pregnancy discrimination as a form of sex discrimination.

Keep in mind that FEHA also does require employers to offer workers with a pregnancy-related disability reasonable accommodation.

Workplace Accommodations for Pregnant Employees

Pregnant workers are often incapable of performing every task that their job requires. For instance, a pregnant worker might not be capable of lifting heavy material or sitting or standing for a lengthy period, and they might need regular bathroom or water breaks. Other prevalent pregnancy-related health problems include preeclampsia, postpartum depression, hypertension due to pregnancy, gestational diabetes, and morning sickness.

FEHA requires that employers provide reasonable accommodation to help pregnant employees with their workplace duties. The various workplace accommodations offered to employees with medical issues related to their pregnancy include:

  • Leave of absence

  • Ergonomic office furniture

  • Schedule modifications, for instance, telecommuting or flexible hours

  • Help with demanding duties

  • Modification of work machinery or equipment

  • Modification of job duties or temporary job reassignment

  • A chair or stool

Note that these accommodations may not come automatically. To receive a given workplace accommodation for your condition, you might have to show your employer a note issued by your physician stating it’s medically necessary for you to receive the accommodation. Your employer has the right to determine whether the accommodation is medically justified. The law necessitates that employers engage in interactive processes with pregnant workers to establish a reasonable and appropriate accommodation. This often involves a talk between the employer and you. Your doctor or their representative could also take part in these dialogues.

Pregnant workers sometimes face retaliatory behavior from their employers after asking for workplace accommodations. The employers try punishing these workers for exercising their legal rights under the state's pregnancy statutes. Examples of retaliatory behavior include terminating a pregnant worker after she asks for workplace accommodation, lowering their compensation amount or other job-related benefits or perk, or demoting them to a lower position. Retaliation is explicitly prohibited under federal and California law.

Pregnancy and Leave Rights

Per the law, pregnant employees are entitled to a period of leave that extends beyond regular maternity leave. California has five primary laws granting leave rights to pregnant workers and female employees with newborns. They include:

  • CFRA (the California Family Rights Act)

  • The FEHA

  • California's PDLA (Pregnancy Disability Leave Act)

  • The federal FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act)

  • The New Parent Leave Act

The Pregnancy Disability Act

California is among the few states with pregnancy disability laws. Commonly referred to as the PDLA, this statute applies to any employee regardless of how long they've worked in the company, provided the firm has five employees or more. However, you are exempt from this law if you are a religious or non-profit organization employee.

Qualified California workers have the right to take a maximum of four months off per the PDLA. A worker has the right to take a pregnancy disability leave if she has a pregnancy-caused disability that makes her incapable of performing the essential duties that their job requires or if doing those tasks would place her pregnancy or herself at risk

Some of the conditions that might entitle an employee to a pregnancy disability leave include:

  • Severe morning sickness

  • Parental care

  • Preeclampsia

  • Gestational diabetes

  • Hypertension due to pregnancy

  • Miscarriage

  • Recovery from childbirth

  • Postpartum depression

Inform your employer if you're experiencing a disability due to your pregnancy and can't do your job perfectly or feel your pregnancy or health is at risk. The employer might request a certification or note from your physician. California's pregnancy discrimination statute prohibits any kind of retaliation from the employer.

The Family and Medical Leave Act

If you're a pregnant employee, you might also have legal rights under the federal FMLA. This law applies only to firms with fifty or more workers who work within seventy-five miles of each other. Additionally, an employee must work 1,250 hours before becoming eligible for leave under the FMLA.

Employees covered under the FMLA are entitled to a ninety-day leave if they suffer from a health condition necessitating leave. An employee suffering from a pregnancy-related condition usually qualifies under The Family and Medical Leave Act. Your employer may need your PDLA and FMLA leaves to run concurrently should they tell you so. However, if they do not, the leaves may run consecutively. This means you can take a four-month leave under the PDLA then a three-month leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA)

CFRA applies to the employers who retain five workers or more. It requires that employers provide a maximum of four months of leave to workers who can’t work due to pregnancy. If you qualify for leave under state and federal family leave statutes, you can take a three-month leave under FMLA after the four-month leave offered under state law.

Lastly, under the state’s temporary disability insurance program, a worker who is incapable of working because of a pregnancy qualifies to receive a maximum of two-thirds of her usual wages during pregnancy. After giving birth, a worker is eligible for partial wages for a maximum of six weeks after the birth.

The Legal Right to Lactation Breaks

Lactation breaks are for nursing employees to express milk (the time to pump breast milk). Both federal and state laws provide that California employers offer lactation breaks to nursing employees. The legal right to lactation break doesn’t apply if the break would seriously interfere with the employer’s operations. However, it’s challenging to meet this exception, and employers must be careful when invoking it.

The law requires that lactation breaks last a reasonable period to express milk. This rather vague standard often means there aren’t any strict time limitations. The United States Labor Department has mentioned that expressing milk alone generally takes fifteen to twenty minutes. However, a reasonable lactation break period would often be more extended since the worker might need to prepare before starting the process.

If you’re entitled to meal or rest breaks, you should try taking your lactation break simultaneously as the meal or rest breaks. However, if that is not possible or you need additional time for expressing milk, your employer is supposed to permit the lactation breaks at other times without retaliation.

You Can Sue for Pregnancy Discrimination

If you believe you're being discriminated against at your place of work because of pregnancy, you can sue your employer for damages. Signs that your employer is discriminating against you because of your pregnancy include:

  • Being treated worse than workers that aren't pregnant

  • The employer justifying the pay cut/demotion/termination with a reason they know is untrue

  • The employer saying or implying that your pregnancy was a problem or would hurt the company

You have to prove these facts to prevail in your pregnancy discrimination lawsuit/claim:

  • Your employer was subject to the state's pregnancy discrimination statutes (that is, they had five workers or more)

  • The employer somehow treated you unjustly (for instance, failed to grant you leave)

  • The unfair treatment was somehow related to your pregnancy

  • You were harmed due to the unfair treatment

Typical proof, in this case, will include recorded communications like texts and emails, accounting documents, and eyewitness accounts.

You need not have an attorney to bring a pregnancy discrimination claim against your employer. However, it’s often wise to hire one. Employee law is complex, and not all cases are easy to handle. Even if your case has compelling facts, a skilled employment law lawyer can help by:

  • Gathering the legally-relevant info

  • Avoiding the obstacles that most non-lawyers aren’t conversant with

  • Applying the law to the related facts and evidence in a more compelling way

  • Maximizing the monetary compensation that you’ll receive

Note that there isn’t any guarantee that an attorney will achieve these things. However, when you handle your legal battles without representation, there’s a higher chance that you’ll severely hurt your case or even lose because of legal mistakes that an attorney would've avoided.

If your employer contests your claim, which often happens, legal arguments will have to be made, and proof may have to be submitted. This may occur before a court or an administrative body, sometimes as per the intricate legal procedures. You want to have an attorney conversant with doing these things. Therefore, even though there isn’t any legal requirement to have a lawyer, navigating the claims process can be much easier if you have one.

You Could Send Your Employee a Pregnancy Discrimination Demand Letter before Filing Your Claim

A pregnancy discrimination demand letter refers to a letter that a pregnant employee sends to their employer. It’s the letter in which you request your employer to stop various discriminating acts against you. In this letter, you state that if the employer stops their discriminatory acts, you won’t take the step of suing them. You also mention that you’ll notify the relevant authorities and file a civil suit if the employer doesn’t end their discriminating behavior.

A pregnancy discrimination demand letter will be prepared by your lawyer. The letter also outlines the unique facts that would trigger a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit or claim.

A pregnancy discrimination demand letter differs from a DFEH (Department of Fair Employment and Housing) complaint. California law provides that, in many cases, before filing a pregnancy discrimination suit, you must first bring a complaint to the relevant government agency.

If you are filing your pregnancy discrimination claim under California statute, you should file your complaint with DFEH. And if you’re filing your pregnancy discrimination under federal law, you should file your complaint with either DFEH or EEOC (the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Find an Employment Law Attorney Near Me

Have you or your loved one been discriminated against at the workplace due to pregnancy? Do not wait to talk to an employment law attorney right away. At Stop Unpaid Wages, we help employees facing pregnancy discrimination in California obtain justice for their employer’s actions. We’ll thoroughly review the details of your case before determining how we can help you recover damages. Call us at 424-781-8411 for a consultation.