New Jersey

Its a complicated story. I am 7 months pregnant and I was working full time in sales and left because after they found out i was pregnant things changed at the office. They had cut my pay by 10 thousand a year and refused me medical. They said medical would not cover the pregnancy because it would be preexsisting and then they said that finally i could get it but it would be 372 every two weeks. this was way too much since they had already cut me but i tried for it anyway. everytime i asked about it they said they would get me the paperwork. never did. that was 2 1/2 months ago. i just applied for unemployment but was told that i had to go through an examiner and friends are telling me that since i quit i will not get it. i really had no choice but to quit though with the paycuts i couldent afford the cost of living in that area. i went out to try and find a job and was unsucsessful. i am worried that if i dont get unemployment i wont have any income at all. can i get temp disability? i am not working now so i dont really know how to qualify for anything or even what to do here.

also do i even tell unemployment that i am pregnant? will this hurt my chances of getting unemployment?

Being pregnant will not bar you from receiving unemployment as long as you are physically capable of working. As to whether the State will award benefits, that's difficult to say but you most certainly should pursue this.

If you were treated less favorably than other employees were because you were pregnant, then you should contact the federal EEOC and discuss filing a discrimination complaint. You may also want to contact the federal Department of Labor regarding the benefits not offered to you and the amount you were being made to pay. If you were in an "eligible class" of employees for participation in the employer's insurance plan and they failed to offer participation to you and/or gouged you on the cost compared to what other employees were required to pay, that is a violation of federal ERISA regulations.

I agree completely with Beth3 -- she said just what I was going to say.

I am aware of several situations in which employees who "quit" their jobs still got unemployment because they were forced to quit. I am also aware of several situations in which being pregnant worked in the terminated employee's favor -- the unemployment claims specialists or hearing examiners are human, after all, and recognize that the point of unemployment is to put food on your table while you look for work -- and who could deny food to a pregnant woman?

If you need help finding an attorney in your area who is familiar with pregnancy discrimination and ERISA claims, feel free to email me at info@worklifelaw.org.

Cynthia

*The foregoing is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.