Are you the victim of discriminatory behavior at your place of work now that you’re pregnant? In a situation like yours, after announcing that you’re pregnant, it’s normal to feel blindsided when you suddenly experience reduced hours, missed promotions, and negative reviews.
Sometimes, people are fully terminated from their position after requesting accommodations, which is a protection you have as an employee. Even if you’re someone who’s afraid to speak up in the first place out of fear of discrimination, this is not fair, and you have legal rights.
Let Omega Law Group Accident & Injury Attorneys advocate for you as your employment lawyer in Santa Rosa. Founded in 2016, our law firm is home to lawyers who have decades of experience, and we can serve as your pregnancy discrimination lawyer in Santa Rosa.
Understanding Pregnancy Discrimination Under California Law
As a type of employment discrimination, being discriminated against while pregnant happens when an employer treats an employee unfairly because of childbirth, related medical conditions, or pregnancy-related leave. California provides strong legal protections for pregnant employees.
Even so, many workers are unaware of the rights available to them until they start facing issues at work. Pregnancy discrimination can take on many forms. For instance, employers might deny promotions or refuse to extend raises to employees who announce a pregnancy.
Other employees are fired, demoted, reassigned, or pressured to quit just because their employers assume that they’re going to become unproductive or unavailable after they give birth. However, this is unfair to you, and you deserve to take legal action in response.
Common Examples of Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace
Pregnancy discrimination isn’t always obvious at first. Sometimes, employers will attempt to disguise their discriminatory decisions by calling them performance concerns or business decisions.
Even so, you can look for certain patterns that typically emerge as a result of discrimination. It’s especially telling if you, as the employee, only started receiving different treatment after you announced your pregnancy or requested accommodations.
With that in mind, these are examples of pregnancy discrimination:
- Terminating employees after they announced their pregnancy
- Lowering the number of hours or responsibilities an employee has
- Refusing to offer them promotions or advancement opportunities
- Failing to make reasonable accommodations, as requested
- Pressuring pregnant employees not to take leave
- Excluding them from work meetings or professional opportunities
- Retaliating against employees who have requested protected leave
- Making inappropriate remarks about pregnancy or motherhood
- Replacing employees while they’re on maternity leave
Victims of this type of discrimination usually start noticing subtle changes before more serious actions are taken against them. Make sure you express everything you’ve experienced when speaking with your pregnancy discrimination attorneys in Santa Rosa.
(310) 526-8383California Laws That Protect Pregnant Employees
California employees can benefit from legal protections related to pregnancy and childbirth.
Pregnancy Disability Leave Protections
California state laws let eligible employees take pregnancy disability leave if they aren’t able to work due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions. This can apply either before or after childbirth, if not both. It all depends on your medical needs.
Employers cannot terminate you or retaliate against you in response to your request for this type of protected leave. Attorneys can figure out if your employers improperly interfered with leave protections or failed to restore you to an appropriate position when you returned to work.
Reasonable Accommodation Requirements
Employers have to accommodate you for pregnancy-related conditions. This might look like modifying your duties, giving you more work breaks, allowing for schedule-related adjustments, transferring you temporarily, letting you sit down, or restricting how much you have to lift.
Unfortunately, employers might unlawfully deny accommodations just because they view pregnant employees as inconvenient or expensive. However, pregnancy discrimination lawyers in Santa Rosa will evaluate improperly rejected accommodation requests.
Protection Against Retaliation
In California, state laws make it illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who have made requests for accommodations.
You also can’t be treated unfairly for taking leave, reporting instances of discrimination, or asserting your pregnancy-related workplace rights.
These are well-known forms of retaliation:
- Termination
- Demotions
- Reduced hours
- Disciplinary actions
- Hostile treatment
In many cases, employers become retaliatory shortly after they are informed of an employee’s pregnancy or accommodation request.
How Employers Attempt To Hide Pregnancy Discrimination
It is not in your employer’s interest to admit that pregnancy influenced their workplace decisions. Instead, companies will try to disguise their discriminatory actions as performance concerns, restructuring claims, attendance issues, or business reasons.
Despite this, pregnancy discrimination lawyers in Santa Rosa understand the ins and outs of these claims, including excuses commonly introduced by employers who’ve been caught being discriminatory.
These are types of evidence your lawyer will review when handling your case:
- Emails or text messages
- HR complaints
- Witness statements
- Performance reviews
- Attendance records
- Accommodation requests
- Medical documentation
- Scheduling changes
- Internal communications
Even if the discrimination you’ve been subjected to has been subtle, patterns of employer conduct can help your lawyers demonstrate that your pregnancy influenced workplace decisions.
Contact Omega Law Group Today for Advice From Pregnancy Discrimination Attorneys in Santa Rosa
If you’ve been discriminated against as a result of your employer becoming aware that you are pregnant, don’t hesitate to call Omega Law Group ASAP. As pregnancy discrimination lawyers in Santa Rosa, we’ve recovered millions of dollars in compensation for our clients.
You can count on us to explain your legal rights, make sure all relevant evidence is preserved, and figure out if your employer officially violated the state’s pregnancy discrimination laws. Contact us today for legal support and let our family take care of your family.
