Thank you in advance to anyone who can help me figure out if there are any legal issues with this situation, and how to handle it.
Here’s the scenario. My sister is 7 months pregnant and intends to work until she has her baby. Her company does not offer maternity leave, so she must use all of her accumulated sick and vacation time for her maternity leave.
A month or so ago my sister’s doctor gave her a note saying that she is not allowed to be on her feet for more than four hours a day because she is retaining too much water and it can cause complications if she does. Yesterday her company fired the girl that worked in the fax room and told my sister that she had to take her place because they are not hiring anyone else (she normally works in data entry). She brought up the note and agreed to work in the fax room part of the day, but explained that she is not capable of doing it all day. To work in the fax room she would have to monitor three fax machines all day and distribute the faxes as they come through, which is at a constant pace. Her boss (and owner of the company) accused her note of being fake and told her to get another one since she had a doctor’s appointment the following day.
So my sister gets another, more detailed, note as requested by her boss, and when she gives it to him today he tells her it is unacceptable. He says that she is not needed if she cannot work the faxes all day. He calls her into his office right before she had to leave to go home and told her that he thinks she is just trying to get out of working in the fax room because she doesn’t want to do it, and that she has to make a choice: “either work there with a smile on your face and no complaints, or take your maternity leave now.” He also happened to know that she only has 21 days to take so he was ready to inform her of that, knowing she isn’t even due until late January. He demanded an answer immediately, and she told him that she will not answer until she talks to both her husband and her doctor. She also let him know that she will follow her doctor’s orders, and will not do anything that may put her baby in jeapoardy. She now has until tomorrow to let him know.
She is so upset about this. Just hearing her tell me about it made me furious! What a heartless bastard! I don’t know if she has any kind of case in this, but I thought I’d ask your opinions. I plan on also contacting some lawyers tomorrow to see what they say. I just thought it’d be nice to have the views of the Dope also.
That’s the problem, they won’t fire her. They’re just pushing her to take her maternity leave early, knowing that she only has a month’s worth of days saved up. After that she’ll have to deal with no pay at all until the baby comes, and however long after she needs.
She needs to call up The Department of Labor, Social Services for organizations to help pregnaut women, and a lawyer. It’s very apparent the guy is trying to get her to quit. People are allowed to take of a set ammont of time for medical reasons by law . The employer isn’t required to pay her, but they do have to keep her benefits active for that time. Some states have laws expanding on how a pregnant person is handled with requards to time off. The hospitals may also know of organizations that can help her with the legalities of this work places.
Thank you so much everyone! She is in Illinois. She called her doctor tonight and the docotor was furious. The doctor said she will document everything for her, and told her to document what he has been saying to her because it sounds like harrassment. She told her to tell him she will work, but to keep track of how swollen she gets and any problems she has, and to call a lawyer tomorrow. My sister’s monther-in-law works at a law firm so they’re going to talk to her about it. Hopefully this asshole will get what is coming to him!
Not so stupid. All lawyers have to do some pro bono work and you might as well use any “in” you can get, and my guess is they would be willing to take her case.
Much better than standing in line to get a public defender.
Sounds to me like she has a case, but I agree with muffin…document, document, document. Paper trails are very important in cases like this, so it doesn’t turn into he said/she said, or a case of incompetent or belligerent employee. But the lawyer will explain that all to her.
Oh, and I too would quit working for the jerk once she has had the baby and has a chance to look for a better working environment.
I’m not a lawyer or anything, but disability and maternity leave (even if the disability is pregnancy-related) are two different things, aren’t they? Maternity leave would exclude all this pre-birth swelling, etc.
Her mother-in-law is a legal secretary. They’re going to talk to her so she will find out if one of the lawyers in her office will take the case. Sorry for the misunderstanding, lol.
I didn’t have anything to add to this thread, but the more I thought about it: does she really want to continue working for this jerk? What happens if her baby gets sick? I think she would be better off using what time she can to look for another job, or cut back expenses a bit so she can stay home with the baby at first.
The guy sounds like a real jerk, and if she has to take time off because of the baby he will make her (job) life miserable.
[hijack]
There was an article in the paper here (Columbus, GA) recently about a woman who had been working with a certain bank for 50+ years. When she started she had to sign a statement that she would never ask time off work because her children were ill.