Issues.

Since becomming pregnant my wife has encountered a large amount of negative actions from her employer. Just prior to announcing her pregnancy, she was awarded "Manager of the year". First it started with her star employee being offered (behind her back) a position at another office "to see how he would do under a male manager" unfortunately there is no paper trail to document that statement. Next she was put on a "performance" enhancing program that was not explained to her, but when she puts someone on the program it usually means they are not performing and are relatively close to being fired. Now just this week she was called by her compny's employee relations dept. and grilled about her reported inaction over personal e-mails made by her employees, and more importantly a complaint from one of her employees that is also on this program that racist terms had gone un-checked in conversation by another employee which was "fo shizzle my Dizzle" made to another employee, and heard by the complaining employee (who is African Amreican. Either way, the result of this investigation started 2 days ago will be wrapped up today and she has been notified she may be fired or demoted because of these things. I strongly feel she is being run out, so that the company doesn't have to deal with her FMLA absence which is coming soon. Should I call a labor Lawyer?? There is a lot more to substantiate the claim-just don't want to bore anyone with this long one!

What does SHE think?

She is of the same opinion. Being 6 months pregnant, she is phenomenally stressed about the whole situation. I wish I could pay all the bills otherwise I would have her just quit. The fact is that she wants to transfer back to the wisconsin district, as this is where she came from when we first met (transferred to Michigan). If she gets fired she cannot do this as per company fire rules. I have told her to accept no formal write-up or demotion until we get legal opinion (as in not signing anything). The complaining employee whom all the fuss is coming from is actually suing the company right now because of a prior issue with unpaid time, not involving my wife who actually hired her back after this unpaid time off for surgery when she did not have to. These complaints and the subsequent investigation are, in my opinion, a last ditch attempt at this employee keeping her job, as she is on a "performance plan" too. The comments were not made in my wifes presence, and as such I am not sure how this could have been controlled by her. Not to mention this was more an ebonic term than a racially motivated one, and as for the e-mails, well it just doen't carry the weight for termination. As I said before this all started after her announcing her pregnancy. It feels like the company may use this issue to terminate/?

If she believes that she is being treated adversely due to her pregnancy, she (better she do it than you) should contact the EEOC. I'm not saying DON'T contact an employment lawyer; that is certainly an option. But she MUST have a right to sue letter from the EEOC before she can take any legal action.

Just as an FYI, signing a write up does not mean she is admitting to wrongdoing; it means she has been advised of the employer's view on the matter. She can be fired for refusing to sign a write up, and it would be legal.