Legal Question in Medical Leave in California

Re: Pregnancy

Hello.

With regard to pregnancy, the practical reality is that it's not your motive but how things look that makes a big difference. If you were to discipline or terminate an employee shortly after she notified you of her condition it will look like pregnancy discrimination/retaliation as timing is a significant factor under the circumstances.

Under Cal. Labor Code it is unlawful to prevent an employee or discriminate against an employee based on reporting for a jury duty.

Writing an employee up at this time will likely backfire, as it will be evidence of your retaliatory state of mind at the time of issuing a write-up that might be a strong evidence of your discriminatory conduct should she bring a claim in court.

Thanks,

Arkady Itkin

http://www.sanfranciscoemploymentlawfirm.com

Re: Pregnancy

Pregnancy does not exempt anyone from proper discipline for work quality, but 'reasonable accommodation' must be given to related disability. Jury duty does get her off work, but she is still obligated to insure a smooth transition and turn over of work to someone. BTW: she did not likely 'volunteer' for jury duty, she was ordered to it by the court like everyone else. The risk to you in disciplining her is a claim of retaliation, so be sure your claims are well founded and documented. You might want to consult with local counsel before taking any action.

Re: Pregnancy

As the previous posts have indicated, you cannot discriminate or discipline the employee because she is pregnant or reporting to jury duty.

However, an employee can always be reprimanded or terminated if 'at-will' because of poor performance regardless of pregnancy. The problem is that to an outsider, such as a juror, it may be a tough sell that the employee was in fact let go for poor performance rather than her pregnancy.

The key here is to document all instances of poor performance copiously. You do run a risk in terminating her, but at the end of the day, as a manager/owner of a company you have to weigh what her poor performance is costing you against the probability she will bring a successful suit and what she would likely recover.

Best of Luck!