I recently went on maternity leave from October 23rd, 2006 thru January 1st, 2007. I was told that I would receive 6 weeks paid plus the vacation time and sick time I had left over from 2006 which amounted to 10 days. After learning that I would have a c-section and knew exactly when I would be leaving work I saw that the time they were giving me would take me thru December 19th, 2006. I did not count paid holidays that the entire office would receive for Thanksgiving on November 23rd and 24th, 2006 and also for Christmas on December 25th, 2006 as I assumed I would be receiving those as a paid holiday along with the rest of the office. I went to my boss and told her that I had calculated out the days and found that my time would take me thru December 19th, 2006 and asked if I could take the additional 7 days off unpaid so that I may return to work the first of the year. She said that was fine and I assumed we had an agreement. She ended up paying me for the entire time I had taken off. I did not know why but I figured we would discuss it when I returned to work. Shortly after I returned I asked to take half of a day off to take my son to the doctor and ended up calling out of work the next day because he was sick. I spoke with the same person regarding all of these issues. When I received my next check I found that it was short the 12 hours that I had taken off. I went to my boss, the same person that I had been in contact with regarding my maternity leave, and asked if I could possibly use my vacation time or personal days to cover the 12 hours. She then informed me that I did not have any time left, that I had used it all to cover my maternity leave. She ended up taking my two weeks vacation for 2007 without even informing me. She also made me use vacation days to cover being off on Thanksgiving and Christmas when the entire office received them off as a paid holiday. I was also not informed that I had no time off left when I asked to take the half day off as well as when I called out the following day. I later went to her and told her that I did not believe that I should have to use a vacation day to cover a paid holiday that the whole office was receiving. She said that she would fis the problem but did nothing and never came to me to tell me that she had changed her mind and would leave it as is. I then went to another member of management and told her the situation. I told her that all I wanted was to be paid for the 12 hours I had missed because had I known I wouldn't be paid I would not have taken the time. She said that she would talk to my boss and get things settled, that she was sure I would be paid for the 12 hours. I was not paid for the 12 hours and did not hear anything from either of them. I later brought the issue up to the President of the company. I told him what was going on and that I was at the point where I was looking for another job because these issues were not getting resolved and I felt the management was doing a poor job. I was fired an hour later. Is this discrimination? Is there anything I can do to now get paid for the 12 hours? I felt that they felt as though they had done me such a huge favor by giving me the time off that I didnt deserve to know how my time was going to be handled and especially didnt deserve to then be paid for 12 more hours. I would like to get your input on the situation. Thank you!

There was no requirement that you be paid for ANY of that time. Arizona does not require paid maternity leave.

No, there is nothing you can do to get paid for those 12 days unless you can somehow convince your employer to pay it. You are not entitled to them under the law.

You showed extremely poor judgement in telling the president of the company that you were looking for another job because of the "poor" handling of your situation that "they" did. I'm not surprised you were fired. No, this is not illegal discrimination.

Double check your company's policy for paid holidays -- our company policy is that the employee must be in active status on the regular work day preceeding a holiday and the regular work day after the holiday in order to qualify for a paid holiday.