Legal Question in Medical Leave in Florida

Re: Fired for missing work while pregnant

I'm sorry to hear of your problem. I hope your wife and baby to be are doing well.

More information is needed before someone could say whether the company violated the law. The two major issues are whether the FMLA was violated, and whether the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was violated.

For the FMLA, the company has to have 50 employees, and your wife has to have worked for them for at least one year total (not continuous), and for 1250 hours in the 12 months before the discharge. If so, then she did not have to request FMLA leave to be covered. The company would be on notice if she told them of the pregnancy related sickness and your son's illness (it also depends on whether his illness qualifies under the FMLA as a "serious health condition"), or gave other information that should make them think the FMLA might be at issue. If so, they have an obligation to determine whether FMLA coverage applies.

If the FMLA applies, they can not legally fire her. A complaint can be filed with the US Dept. of Labor for free - they will investigate and try to help you resolve the issue if they think the company was wrong. You can also sue, but that is lengthy and expensive.

As for discrimination, the company has to treat pregnant women like it treats other employees who get sick. So if they have had other employees similar to your wife (in terms of her position and hours and supervisor) take similar amounts of leave but not get fired, that is probably discriminatory. Your wife can file a charge with the state human rights commission or the EEOC for free. (It is required to file with one of these before suing, and there are time limits involved.) They will investigate and then a lawsuit can be brought later if no resolution is reached.

If you want, you can email me directly with more information and I can give you an opinion on how to proceed. If your wife wants to hire an attorney, we can talk about that as well. (It is often helpful to have an attorney negotiate for you.)

In the meantime, she should loook for a better job once she is well enough to do so, if she wants to return to work.

Good luck with everything.

Jeff Sheldon

The Sheldon Law Firm

[email protected]

Caveat: This is general advice only and should not be relied upon as legal advice because all facts and circumstances are not known to the author.