Many of us are familiar with the fact that the United States is woefully behind on providing paid parental leave, but that is just one part of a larger system where America punishes people for their reproductive choices. The penalties begin long before the delivery room; employers’ policies often unfairly push out parents-to-be during a time money and stability is more important than ever.
Discrimination against pregnant workers is technically illegal. However, as this new class-action lawsuit against AT&T Mobility (a subsidiary of AT&T) shows, seemingly neutral policies can cause disproportionate harm to them. The target of the suit is so-called “no-fault” attendance policies, which “do not distinguish among the reasons an employee might be late or absent”according to the ACLU blog. Every time a worker is late or absent, they accumulate points in a demerit system. After you reach a certain number of points, you are fired.
Pregnancy can take a toll on an employee’s health and between morning sickness and regular prenatal checks an uptick in absences and a few late mornings is to be expected. Unfortunately, at places that use “no-fault” policies, this often means a fast track to termination. The ACLU Women’s Rights Project teamed up with two law firms to represent two former AT&T employees who were fired while pregnant under these policies. In a press release, the ACLU Women’s Project explains why they’re bringing the suit.
The two named plaintiffs, Katia Hills and Cynthia Allen, were both penalized under the company’s nationwide “Sales Attendance Guidelines” policy. The policy exempts a number of absences from the point system, ranging from jury duty to short-term disability – but does not mention pregnancy.
The suit says that AT&T Mobility violated the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) when they fired Hills and Allen. Under the FMLA, eligible workers can get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to handle a serious medical condition—their own or an immediate family member’s. Under the PDA, employers are forbidden from treating pregnant employees differently from non-pregnant workers, which means selective exemptions from policies are banned.