San Francisco Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer

Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is one of the most common forms of workplace discrimination. It is a form of gender discrimination that can occur in several contexts. If an employee is demoted or terminated after her employer discovers she is pregnant, she may be experiencing discrimination based on pregnancy. A pregnant woman is entitled to use medical leave intermittently, including for checkup appointments, morning sickness, or bed rest during pregnancy. Therefore, if an employer refuses to allow a pregnant employee to take days off for these things, this can also be a form of pregnancy discrimination. An employee is also entitled to take medical leave for birth and baby bonding for up to 12 weeks, and she is entitled to reinstatement to the same or comparable position (in pay, title and hours) following the conclusion of the leave. Sometimes a pregnancy requires an employee to take disability leave. An employer will often hire a temporary replacement during a longer period of leave, and then refuse to reinstate the employee following the conclusion of the pregnancy disability leave. This is another example of discrimination based on pregnancy. There are additional laws that go hand in hand with medical leave which provides women with additional time to the 12 weeks medical leave laws provide.

Pregnancy discrimination can also come in the form of refusing to grant reasonable accommodations such as lifting restrictions, more frequent breaks, or providing a time and a place to pump breast milk. If you begin to be treated poorly, asked inappropriate questions about your pregnancy, hear or receive negative comments about your work being affected by your pregnancy, you could also be experiencing harassment. Further, if you report this mistreatment and you find yourself under additional scrutiny or are terminated, you are likely being retaliated against.

Throughout the state of California, including the San Francisco Bay Area down to San Diego, our legal professionals protect employees who have been terminated or mistreated due to their pregnancy.