In December 2011, Sarah Fielder’s company was preparing to lay off some its employees. Sarah, who was 7 months pregnant at the time, wasn’t worried because her friends told her they wouldn’t lay off a pregnant employee because it was against the law. Sarah received her layoff notice five days later. Sarah’s stunned response was “It was awful—I was planning to work until I went into labor, and to return after taking my allotted maternity leave . . . Instead of being given an office baby shower, I was given a pink slip.” The company stated that the layoff was not related to Fielder’s pregnancy because that would be against the law. It is a violation of the Civil Rights Act to fire an employee specifically because she is pregnant, which is why firms never mention pregnancy when firing an employee. However, it is not a violation of the act to lay off an employee while she is on maternity leave, so long as the pregnancy was not the reason for the decision. Some experts claim that the downturn in the economy gives a ready excuse for a company just to lay off one employee, which could be a pregnant employee that it no longer wants on the payroll. Of course, a company would have the “bonus” of not having an obligation to pay for maternity leave if the pregnant employee was fired. To compound the problem, if the pregnant woman works for a small company with fewer than 20 employees, she may not be able to obtain affordable health coverage to pay for the delivery. In 2011, 6,285 cases of pregnancy-based discrimination were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Furthermore, in 2008, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, ruled that an employer does not have to make special accommodation for pregnant women. For example, an employee does not have to allow a pregnant employee to take more bathroom breaks, nor does the employer have to suspend the job duties that require heavy lifting if the employee is pregnant. The reason these accommodations are not required is that pregnancy is not considered a disability, so the employers do not have to provide the same reasonable accommodations that are required under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Questions

1. Do you think employers need to give pregnant women special accommodations?

2. How often do you think pregnancy is part of the decision process when layoffs occur within a firm?

3. Do you think there are certain industries that would be more likely to fire pregnant women? Do you think there are certain industries that would be less likely to fire pregnant women?