Woman Asked to Resign for Being Pregnant

February 9th, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

It can be nerve-wrecking to tell your boss that you’re pregnant, but Amy Zvovushe never thought she’d be fired for it.  The 31-year-old had a new job as a senior program manager at a marketing company in Connecticut and when she told her employer she was expecting they asked her to resign, rather than offer her maternity leave, which, under the federal Family Medical Leave Act an employee must work a full year to be eligible.

Luckily, Amy didn’t take her boss up on the request. After she was told she’d lose her job if she took time off, she had a conversation with human resources. According to ABC News, she recorded the discussion without informing them, and caught several shocking statements on tape, including this from an executive:

“You don’t receive protection under FMLA so technically if you don’t come to work … it doesn’t matter whether you’re having your appendix out or you’re having a baby or you’re dealing with a sick person you didn’t show up for work on Monday.”

When Amy’s attorney, Jack Tuckner, contacted the company, they agreed to grant her leave to care for her baby. “Because they were able to fix it, they say no harm, no foul,” he said.

Unfortunately other women aren’t always so lucky. There are reportedly thousands of women who are fired for being pregnant each year, a move Dina Bakst, a lawyer and founder/president of A Better Balance: The Work and Family Legal Center, wrote in a NY Times Op-ed stems from a gap between discrimination laws and disability laws for the injustice.

“Federal and state laws ban discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. And amendments to the Americans With Disabilities Act require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees (including most employees with medical complications arising from pregnancies) who need them to do their jobs. But because pregnancy itself is not considered a disability, employers are not obligated to accommodate most pregnant workers in any way.”

Dina has made a call to action and acknowledged that seven states have passed laws mandating private companies make at least some accommodations, but according to her there is still much to do.

Check out the tape of Amy Zvovushe’s conversation with her employer. Did you have a hard time getting maternity leave when you were pregnant?

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Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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  • newmom1

    It depends on when she told them she was pregnant. If she was still within the year before FMLA kicked in then she technically didn’t qualify for maternity leave.

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  • IllyPhilly

    Hey, I quit for some of the same reasons. Good thing she had tape.

  • Kashbmaryd

    The whole point of law is that it is not right for employers to fire women because of pregnancy. Furthermore, if employers are getting tired of pregnant women, maybe they should find a different way to make money. Women are going to get pregnant no matter what. There just needs to be a fair playing field; this is where the law about discrimination based on sex comes into play.

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  • Bitter Pill

    Whatever. I am tired of women wanting all these special considerations because they want to have careers and children at the same time. this may hurt the delicate sensibilities of today’s “modern woman” but she should be much more worried about the affects that work-related stress would have on her fetus than holding on to some status symbol AKA job. Now, if she needs to work because she is unmarried or married a man who can’t provide for their family – she made a huge mistake. If you can afford for one person to be out of work while you raise children then you can’t afford to have children, end of story. Don’t like it? Too bad. But employers are getting sick of this. 

    • People R US

      This sounds so silly. It is so unusual to me to punish somebody for doing something that naturally happens. We need children in society to keep it going. Because guess what… they grow up, get jobs, and become future employees. What are people supposed to do? Not have sex? Stay celibate? Be virgins forever? Come into the real world please. 

    • Sugar_Spice

      A lot of women chose to have a career & not rely on someone even if they are married.  What happens if  the husband decides he wants to runaway with another women & leave mother & child behind?  This was the situation with my parents.  Marriage is not a guarantee, I am personally choosing to work after my child is born because life is unexpected & I know I can count on me.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BNDBJ2N3FXR4BYE76HCEWFGYLM Ayana

      Did you read this before you posted it?  You sound so ignorant!

    • Liish

      The conditions from which the child occurs (within marriage,one night stand, etc.) has no baring on an already pregnant woman’s maternity leave. A woman has the right to have a career and a family. Just because they have the ability to give birth and men don’t, doesn’t someone make it a special provision. Men are not naturally expected to choose between the two. The simple fact that you can type this archaic logic baffles me.

    • Pivyque

      I actually agree with you to an extent. Employers are getting tired of having to be 1 more person short because of maternity leave. However, women SHOULD be able to have maternity leave after giving birth, BUT they should still be expected to do their job as well as the next person up until that point AND once they return. 

    • Gjodyjoe

      Bitter pill i agree its a joke