Illegal Firing Due to Pregnancy Can Be Hard to Prove
Q. I was employed by a company in Torrance. About a month before I was due to go on maternity leave, I was told, much to my surprise, that I was not performing well. The agreement I had, which I did not sign, was that I would have seven weeks after my eight weeks of maternity leave to find another job and then I would be terminated. I am now strongly encouraged by friends and family to seek legal counsel on this.
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A. Both state and federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on pregnancy. If your employer decided to terminate your employment on account of your pregnancy, you would have a variety of legal remedies available, including seeking lost wages and benefits, as well as damages.
Employees who are pregnant do not enjoy immunity from legitimate discipline or even from termination of their employment, however, so long as it is not related to their pregnancy.
Your situation is somewhat unusual. In most cases of pregnancy discrimination, the employee is terminated while she is pregnant because the employer does not want to bear the burden of temporarily replacing her during her pregnancy leave and subjecting its medical insurance plan to the risks of a problem pregnancy. By contrast, your employer is terminating your employment after you give birth and take your leave of absence. Therefore, it may be difficult for you to prove that your termination was motivated by your pregnancy as opposed to poor work performance.
--James J. McDonald Jr., attorney, Fisher & Phillips labor law instructor, UC Irvine
Report Injuries Quickly
Q. A friend of mine works in a restaurant. One day while she was working, she tripped and sprained her ankle. It was clear to everyone that she needed medical attention as soon as possible. However, the owner of the restaurant begged her not to go to the hospital because he did not want to pay for workers’ compensation. She insisted on seeing a doctor and the owner then offered to pay for the bill out of his own pocket. She ended up not going to a doctor at all. What should she have done?
--D.W., Fullerton
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A. California regulations require your friend’s company to carry workers’ compensation insurance coverage to protect employees who are injured on the job. This insurance will provide employees medical, surgical and hospital treatment that result from work-related injuries. The cost of this coverage is paid by the company.
Your friend should have reported the injury immediately to her direct supervisor and insisted on medical attention. The medical expenses would have been the responsibility of the employer. If your friend continues to have problems with her ankle, she should still notify her employer that she needs medical attention.
Prompt medical treatment of injuries is highly advisable to ensure the employee and employer maximum benefits and protection from potential future liability.
--Elizabeth Winfree-Lydon, senior staff consultant The Employers Group
Turnover May Be Result of Poor Information
Q. My company has been using only structured interviews to screen applicants for hire. However, we have been experiencing high turnover. Do you have any suggestions how we can screen applicants better to get better workers and to cut down on turnover?
--S.I., Fullerton
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A. If new employees are quitting their jobs early, it may indicate that they are not being made aware of what the jobs are all about before they are hired, or you may be presenting them with an unrealistically positive picture of these positions. An important goal of any hiring process is to present new employees with a “realistic job preview”--a detailed, accurate representation of what the job entails.
Many factors affect employee turnover, and high turnover rates among new employees can be extremely costly when you add up the costs of hiring and training new workers.
There are many alternative employee screening methods. Your company may want to consider using employment tests. There is overwhelming evidence that sound pre-employment testing programs can be the most effective strategies for hiring productive, committed employees.
You might also want to consider doing more reference and background checking on prospective employees.
Finally, you might want to review your existing interview process, examining the interview questions and the criteria being used to make hiring decisions.
You might want to consider hiring a human resources consultant to review your hiring process to help improve it or suggest alternatives. A good consultant also should help shed some light on what is causing your high turnover.
--Ron Riggio, professor of industrial psychology Cal State Fullerton
D o you have a question about an on-the-job situation? If so, please mail it to Shop Talk, Los Angeles Times, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. Or call (714) 966-7873 and leave a voice mail message with your name and where you live. Questions of general interest will be answered in this column on Mondays.
