Riverside Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer

To better understand workplace pregnancy discrimination and its effects, it’s helpful to first understand what it can look like in a workplace. The following are some example pregnancy discrimination scenarios in California:

• Denial of Reasonable Accommodation – While pregnancy can be a precious gift, it is also a serious medical condition. Some pregnant people will need reasonable accommodations at work. If, despite having ample documentation from a doctor explaining the accommodations needed, a pregnant worker is denied the accommodations, that worker might have a valid claim for pregnancy discrimination.
  
  
• Negative Evaluations – If, after you make your pregnancy known, you notice a sudden decline in either formal performance evaluations or verbal indicators of performance satisfaction, this might be a clue that you are experiencing pregnancy discrimination. This is often marked by an employee who has had consistent performance reviews up until announcing their pregnancy and is thereafter subjected to extreme criticism for minor mistakes or steeply elevated performance standards.

  Employers also know the law and will therefore not put it in writing that pregnancy is the true cause of their decreased satisfaction with the worker. This means proving that pregnancy is the true reason behind poor performance evaluations is often an extremely nuanced matter that requires gathering ample evidence before attempting to make your claim.
  
  

• Demotion – When someone gets demoted after announcing their pregnancy or after returning from maternity leave, they may have grounds for a claim against their employer. This demotion, like so many items on this list, might come in a subtle, informal way as a means for an employer to cover their tracks. For example, a pregnant worker might be reassigned to undesirable tasks rather than experience a formal downgrade to their job title.
  
  
• Harassment and Hostility – Harassment, derogatory comments, and confrontational attitudes have no place at work, and hostility specifically targeted at mothers-to-be is certainly no exception to these core societal rules. This type of harassment often occurs subtly, such in the form of “harmless” comments about someone’s post-pregnancy appearance or assumptions about a lessened dedication to their career now that they are a mother.
  
  
• Wrongful Termination – Losing your job after announcing your pregnancy is one of the most extreme and harmful forms of workplace pregnancy discrimination. A single discriminatory choice by your employer can throw your finances, and every other aspect of your entire life, into a spiral instantly at a time when you are trying to build a stable life for your new child. If you wrongly lose your job in the Riverside area because of announcing your pregnancy, don’t despair. Swift, decisive legal action can help you reclaim lost wages and other damages.
  
  

Note that these are just a few examples of pregnancy discrimination scenarios and are in no way an exhaustive list of actions that represent illegal workplace pregnancy discrimination.