My company has an employee that has only worked for us for 3 weeks. Each of the three weeks she has been working she has missed one day due to illness. Today we called her over to talk to her about this and write her up. Before we had a chance to even start the meeting she told us that she just found out she was pregnant.
This put the meeting on hold until we could find out what to do.
While we understand all the pregnancy rights, her performance and attendance is hurting us. We can't afford to have someone who misses one day a week and go home early all the time because she is pregnant.
Can we let her go because of attendance, when she is missing work because she is sick once a week because of her pregnancy?

How many employees do you have?

there are under 50 employees in production; including all office personnel there are about 60.

My company has an employee that has only worked for us for 3 weeks. Each of the three weeks she has been working she has missed one day due to illness. Today we called her over to talk to her about this and write her up. Before we had a chance to even start the meeting she told us that she just found out she was pregnant.
This put the meeting on hold until we could find out what to do.
While we understand all the pregnancy rights, her performance and attendance is hurting us. We can't afford to have someone who misses one day a week and go home early all the time because she is pregnant.
Can we let her go because of attendance, when she is missing work because she is sick once a week because of her pregnancy?

No. Morning sickness and prenatal care are covered under Pregnancy Disability Leave. You must allow her this time off.

Agree, she would qualify for the Ca. Pregnancy Disability Leave - you only need at least 5 employees & it doesn't matter how long she has worked for you.

While I agree that she needs this time off under PDL, it doesn't mean that she can simply call off whenever she needs to. Request medical certification of those absences. Additionally, she should provide advance notice for all scheduled appointments.

Finally, can you restructure her work load to accommodate the issues stemming from her pregnancy? For example, offering flex time, termporarily moving her to another depatment that is not negatively impacted by her absences or other measures.

We are a retail operation and due to the work environment will generally take a pregnant employee off work if they are missing too much time due to morning sickness. After all, an essential job function is being at work to service our customers. So tread lightly, offer the most assistance that you can to the employee, and if business needs warrant, you may be able to offer her a leave of absence through the first trimester and re-eval to see if she is better able to perform essential job functions.

Who knows...she may not even be pregnant and all of the above is moot!

While I agree that she needs this time off under PDL, it doesn't mean that she can simply call off whenever she needs to. Request medical certification of those absences. Additionally, she should provide advance notice for all scheduled appointments.

Finally, can you restructure her work load to accommodate the issues stemming from her pregnancy? For example, offering flex time, termporarily moving her to another depatment that is not negatively impacted by her absences or other measures.

We are a retail operation and due to the work environment will generally take a pregnant employee off work if they are missing too much time due to morning sickness. After all, an essential job function is being at work to service our customers. So tread lightly, offer the most assistance that you can to the employee, and if business needs warrant, you may be able to offer her a leave of absence through the first trimester and re-eval to see if she is better able to perform essential job functions.

Who knows...she may not even be pregnant and all of the above is moot!

I have to strongly disagree with this advice. First, an employer is not entitled to medical certification for all absences under PDL. It may be different for CFRA or FMLA, but under PDL, it is impractical to expect an employee to go to the doctor every time she experiences morning sickness, which, frankly, could be daily for several weeks. That is a normal part of pregnancy and does not warrant a visit to the doctor every time. Further, while an employer can require an employee to make medical appointments that cause the least amount of disruption to the business, forcing a pregnant employee onto PDL is very risky. I would avoid that if at all possible.

Actually, the employer IS entitled to medical certification. I would request it; however, I should make it clear that I would not re-request for every morning sickness (usually the cause of absence or tardiness). However you can and should get the initial medical certification that says the employee is pregnant and what the parameters of her absence or tardiness should entail. I would also re-eval at the end of the first trimester to determine if her condition has changed--most morning sickness resolves at this time.

The only reason that we will place pregnant employees on a leave of absence is if their absences due to the pregnancy are severly affecting their ability to perform their essential job functions. If I have a cashier who is supposed to ring a register at 10am and she does not arrive until 11am due to morning sickness, that impacts my business. We are not a big box retailer who has more than one cashier scheduled at a time.

We handle these situations to try and make every effort to assist our employees through a pregnancy, but at the same time we cannot let our business model be adversely affected. If I need to put someone on leave I can and will.

I still think the OP should require med cert. At this point, they only have the ee's word that she is pregnant. (It might not be true...I guarantee it would not be the first time.)

Actually, the employer IS entitled to medical certification. I would request it; however, I should make it clear that I would not re-request for every morning sickness (usually the cause of absence or tardiness). However you can and should get the initial medical certification that says the employee is pregnant and what the parameters of her absence or tardiness should entail. I would also re-eval at the end of the first trimester to determine if her condition has changed--most morning sickness resolves at this time.

The only reason that we will place pregnant employees on a leave of absence is if their absences due to the pregnancy are severly affecting their ability to perform their essential job functions. If I have a cashier who is supposed to ring a register at 10am and she does not arrive until 11am due to morning sickness, that impacts my business. We are not a big box retailer who has more than one cashier scheduled at a time.

We handle these situations to try and make every effort to assist our employees through a pregnancy, but at the same time we cannot let our business model be adversely affected. If I need to put someone on leave I can and will.

I still think the OP should require med cert. At this point, they only have the ee's word that she is pregnant. (It might not be true...I guarantee it would not be the first time.)

The employer can ask for medical cert for a pregnancy confirmation, but as you said, they can't request it for every instance of morning sickness. I would be very careful of placing employees on PDL prematurely. This is asking for a lawsuit. You cannot force an employee onto PDL unless she absolutely cannot perform her job. But showing up to work an hour late for morning sickness would not warrant a forced leave. I don't believe there is any "undue hardship" defense to granting PDL.