Legal Question in Employment Law in Tennessee

Re: Medical Leave

The answer is that your employer may well be within its rights to terminate your employment.

Tennessee's employment laws must be viewed against the backdrop of employment at-will. This is a common law concept which is firmly rooted in this state and provides that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for good, bad or no reason at all. This ability is "balanced" by the employee retaining an equal ability to quit his or her employment at any time for good, bad or no reason. Against this backdrop fall the laws which protect employees from discrimination, retaliation and engaging in concerted activity. Excepted from this backdrop are employment contracts.

Your employment is protected from discrimination against you because of your pregnancy and from retaliation for taking a medical leave if the leave is part of a workers' compensation claim. Without knowing the size of your employer, if you had been employed for at least 1 year, you would also have entitlement to protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12 month period. However, the situation you described briefly leads to the conclusion that you do not have a claim for retaliation and you do not qualify for FMLA leave. You may have a claim for pregnancy discrimination, but you will need to supply more facts as to how men with similar short term disabilities were treated to complete the analysis. This should probably done in face-to-face consultation with a lawyer where the whole range of employment issues can be explored.