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 should i even tell the examiner at the unemployment office that i am pregnant?

it seems somethiing is missing here, but if accurate, go the nj dept of civil rights and complain. further, pregnancy qualifies you for TDI in Jersey, TDI is mandaotry in Jersey, unless a govt. body employs you. although, I dunno if 7 mos. pregnant qualifies you for TDI, yet, unless a doctor stated it was a high-risk pregnancy or otherwise disabled.

if what you say is accurate, action and reaction, then it would seem you've been the victim of dsicrimination.

curt j.

YOu might also be able to cross file with the EEOC.

everything i said was 100% truth. the company has not had a reputation for treating any employee favorable, pregnant or not. no one was allowed breaks. lunches were scarce. i was even approached by prior employees to go against them on a class action lawsuit but when i pursued it at the time i was still working there and was not entitled to do this, well as far as the lawyer stated. i contacted the board of labor and nothing was done. others who have worked there have also contacted the board of labor as well. they have railroaded many people out of thier positions. i am hoping that when i speak to the examiner on thurs of next week all goes well and i can at least get unemployment. its an uphill battle for me i am sure though. i can honestly say that i had approached my managers many times with complaints about salary cuts and no medical without any type of relief. i even contacted my dr to go on disability because of the way i was being treated at work and the stress level it was causing but that is not a reason for disability. i spoke to my manager and told him that with the paycut and the expenses to get to work, child care and medical i wouldent be making enough money to live. i would be barely covering child care costs at that point. he took me aside and suggested that i not quit but dont come in and call out for a few days and he would fire me so that i would get unemployment. he said to call him later about it because we both knew how scrupulous the company was and that they would fight tooth and nail not to pay for my unemployment if they could. that didnt pan out and after a few days and coming to my senses (also him never calling me) i didnt want to take chances doing anything that may be wrong and so i called him once more and told him i was forced to move because i couldent afford living anylonger with the paycuts and no medical insurance and no car. that was that.

what is the eeoc?

or eeoc for short. www.eeoc.gov. they are the federal arm which investigates claims of employment discrimination. they may also issue complaints, but usually only right to sue letters.

the nj version is through the division of civil rights, which enforces NJ's law against discrimination (LAD). each state has a state law against discrim which may or may not be broader than the federal version. you can sue under both, if applicable, as a federal violation and a state violation. also, in nj, the eeoc will cross-transmit claims to the state version and vice-versa, so that often filing with one will be filing with both. not sure if all states do this, and not sure if happens in every circumstance, but this is a good place to start.

When I said "if true", it wasn't meant as you might be lying, but rather as if these are the full facts, if the cause-and-effect chains you mentioned were just that or if there were other causes to the effect which you might not have mentioned or might not even know about (certain policies unknown to you, etc,), etc.

curt j.