Women in New Jersey and around the country can have successful, fulfilling careers and be excellent mothers. Employers should facilitate a female employee’s transition into motherhood so that she is not forced to make the decision between career aspirations and parenting responsibilities. In fact, federal law protects pregnant women from discrimination based on their pregnancy.

But a medical company violated the law when it engaged in sex discrimination against one of its female employees. The pregnant woman, who worked as the company’s bookkeeper, was subjected to repeated derisive and derogatory comments about her pregnancy. The company’s owner implied that the woman was using doctor’s visits as a pretext to miss work.

The owner also demanded that she take no more than a couple of days off for maternity leave. The woman gave birth by Caesarian section, which involves the major surgical procedure of cutting open the abdominal wall and uterus. In addition, while the woman was convalescing in the hospital, she received a letter from her employer, stating that she had been fired, and that she no longer had health insurance.

The EEOC brought a lawsuit on her behalf. After the company refused to hire a lawyer, the court entered a default judgment against it. This past week the judge ordered the company to pay the woman $148,000, which includes $50,000 in punitive damages. The judge noted that the company’s actions were “inherently humiliating” and caused her “substantial emotional distress.”

An attorney for the EEOC said that the woman’s case is regrettably not unique. Women routinely encounter discrimination based on pregnancy even in today’s workforce. The attorney stated: “Pregnancy discrimination is sex discrimination. It is flatly prohibited by law.”

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “HCS Medical Staffing Ordered to Pay $148,000 for Pregnancy Discrimination by Owner,” Mar. 2, 2012.