QUESTION
I had an unemployment appeal hearing, do I have a chance at winning?
Asked on Nov 19th, 2012 on Wrongful Termination - Pennsylvania
More details to this question:
I was "fired" from my job on September 16th, 2012 for "willful misconduct" from a local attorney's office. I was, at the time, 25 weeks pregnant. I was "warned" early April of this year that my work was "lacking". What had happened was that some of the paperwork I had completed drafts of the attorney had not returned to me in time for the paperwork to be filed.return the paperwork. He also did not want me taking deposits during my lunch hour. I took this first "warning" very seriously. I stopped taking deposits, I took NO personal calls, I made sure all of my work was checked, double checked, filed on time, and done as completely as was possible. In July, my doctor informed me that I was borderline with Pregnancy Induced Hypertension and that I needed to take frequent breaks to avoid further complications. My hearing was today and he had cited "willful misconduct and poor work performance due to personal business". He had no examples of poor performance just some facebook postings.
1 ANSWER
Litigation Attorney serving Media, PA
at
Eckell, Sparks, Levy, Auerbach, Monte, Sloane, Matthews & Auslander, P.C.
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Your post raises 2 different issues:
(1) If you were terminated from your employment (as opposed to a voluntary quit situation), then your former employer bears the burden of proving willful misconduct. General poor work performance is usually not enough. Moreover, in the hearing, you should talk about the fact that you were working to the best of your ability, but were sometimes hampered due to your pregnancy, which you had informed your boss about.
(2) Depending upon the number of employees who worked at your former employer's office, you may also have a claim for pregnancy discrimination, in violation of Pennsylvania state law and/or the Federal Title VII law. Both laws prohibit employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of pregnancy. If other similarly-situated employees at your former firm (i.e., other employees with the same or similar job as you had) were not treated the same way you were, were not fired but were behind on their work, violated employer rules, etc., then you may have a claim for discrimination if the only difference between you and them was that you were pregnant and they were not.
Please feel free to contact me directly to discuss in more detail, if you would like.
Michael J. Davey, Esq.
mdavey@eckellsparks.com
(610) 565-3700
Answered on Nov 20th, 2012 at 8:32 AM