Hello all,

I have a question I hope someone can help me with (please excuse the
length):

My wife and I both work for a major bookselling chain. She got pregnant in
September and we of course informed everyone at work, and they all seemed
very happy for us.

Not a week later my wife was written up for an incident that happened a
month prior, and at the time was not deemed a serious enough offense to be
written up for (it was simply a matter of poor communication and involved
other employees, none of whom were written up to spite our employers claim
to the contrary). Not only was she written up for this, when she asked why
it took so long for her to be written up, she was told that the manager was
out of town for a week, and then didn't work with another bookseller who was
involved that had to be questioned about the incident for a couple of weeks
later. This was a blatant lie, as they had worked together several times
since the vacation and before the writeup. My wife requested copies of the
schedules to verify this, but never received them.

Around the same time, my wife's hours were cut from about 24-30 hours a week
to 8. She was told that business was slow and everyone's hours were getting
cut, which was true. The problem is that whereas most of our coworkers had
an hour or two cut here and there, my wife had hers cut by nearly three
quarters. She did have major bouts of morning sickness, but I believe I read
somewhere that they can't alter her schedule because of this? (I found
something on this at the time, but can't locate the information again...)

She was told after she complained to the regional manager that she thought
she was being unfairly discriminated against that it looked to them that the
store was working with her, and they could see no signs of discrimination.
Also, she was told that when she was ready, she would get her hours bumped
up again.

It's now February and after several requests for more hours, she has yet to
get any. The rest of the staff's hours have gone back up to normal levels, but my wife's have remained low. In fact they have actually reduced her hours from 8 to 6 a week.
She even opened up her availablility to accomidate more hours. I have heard
several rumors (nothing that I could substaniate) that the manager will not
give her more hours in the hopes that she will quit, a tactic that has
worked on numerous employees in the past. In addition, the last two women
that worked there that got pregnant felt that they were unfairly targeted as
well, but they didn't put up the fight that we would like to, they just left
to get away from it all.

Is there any action we can take against this? I think we've given them
plenty of chances to improve the situation. We have no interest in legal
action, but we also don't want to be forced out the door with these tactics
like so many coworkers before us (when this manager arrived, numerous highly qualified people who had been there for years were suddenly run out of the store to make way for the managers former coworkers). Can anyone guide me to information that
can help in our case?

Thanks a bunch,
T.G.

First, how many employees are there within 75 miles of your location and has she worked there for at least 1 year with 1250 hours in the past year?

If so, she may use FMLA for the morning sickness.

It at least looks suspicious that she was written up after the fact but the explanation does sound plausible. Are you sure others weren't written up? Generally that sort of information is not common or public knowledge. Your employer should not be sharing information about other employees with you anyway. Even if you could prove that the two managers/ witnesses whatever in question worked together post vacation, it is entirely plausible that they didn't get a chance to discuss the incident right away. What I'm saying is, you are going to have an uphill battle to prove that it is related to her pregnancy and not just general lag time. One write up without more also doesn't make a discrimination case as it wouldn't have affected the terms or conditions of her employment.


Where you do have a decent case is in the hours. You mention that she opened up her availability to more hours. I take it at some point she was not able to work the extended hours? Also, if she was havin difficulty early on and welcomed the shortened workweek, that would not be discriminatory. They can alter the schedule if they would for someone who had another type of illness and was not able to work. Why schedule her for hours that you know she is going to be out sick for? If Henry has the flu, and I know that when I make up the schedule, I'm not going to put Henry on it while I know he is unwell. They couldn't alter her schedule because they think she *might* have morning sickness.

Have you tried contacting the regional manager on the hours issue? I'd start there. It doesn't sound like your store is well managed, which unfortunately happens a lot in retail. Sometimes you have to take it up a level to get your situation remedied. If you can not, you at least have a case for PDA and it wouldn't hurt to get a consultation in with a qualified attorney in your area. If nothing else, perhaps a strongly worded letter from said attorney might get them to shape up and take notice.

For information on pregnancy laws go to www.eeoc.gov,