QUESTION
My Wife is Pregnant and works for a verbally abusive manager
Asked on Jul 23rd, 2014 on Discrimination - Ohio
More details to this question:
My wife was promoted to management for a financial services firm 3 years ago under old management. Her new manager has since been verbally abusive to employees where my wife states on numerous occasions that she has been told "you look like sh*!, put your makeup on" and routinely cursed at for various reasons. We have since got pregnant with our 2nd child. She told her manager that she may have some medical appointments coming up. Her manager dismissed the conversation with comments like "Was it planned? What are you going to do about work?" Since notifying her manager my wife has had her staff routinely audited and has been told that she never should have been promoted, and that she is an awful manager(i'm being nice). In the latest round of inquiry(while my wife was off for bereavement) she was found to have broken company policy. My wife has not said anything to HR about working in a hostile work environment or EEOC violation in fear of retaliation. Is there a case here?
1 ANSWER
Hostile work environment claims must be related to pregnancy. The EEOC just issued new guidance related to employers' obligations to accommodate pregnant employees. In addition to prohibiting pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, your wife could potentially have claims under the FMLA (if the employer has 50+ employees) or the ADA.
My firm represents employees throughout the State of Ohio in employment discrimination matters. Feel free to call my office.
Ohio Employment Attorney www.mcoffmanlegal.com
Answered on Jul 23rd, 2014 at 3:26 PM
Matthew J.P. Coffman The answer provided is not legal advice and it is recommended that you seek advice of an attorney. My office # is 614-949-1181.