A new study provides further evidence that employers discriminate against pregnant women when they apply for a job but the study also offers pregnant job seekers helpful tips for getting around the discriminatory biases of employers. The researchers who conducted the study found that pregnant job applicants experienced more hostility…
Yesterday, New York City’s City Council passed a law that would prohibit employers from discriminating against pregnant employees just because they need a reasonable accommodation to continue working during their pregnancy. This is an important advance for pregnant employees because, apart from the accommodations that they routinely provide to non-pregnant…
Last week, Governor LePage vetoed a bill that we previously reported on which would have protected employees who need to breastfeed or express breast milk at work from discrimination. This week, the Maine House failed to override Governor LePage’s veto. The editorial board of the Bangor Daily News expressed its…
Yesterday, a bill that would provide further protections for mothers who need to nurse or express breast milk in the workplace passed the Maine House. Maine law currently requires employers to provide accommodations to employees who need to nurse or express breast milk but the penalties for failing to obey…
The Maine legislature is currently considering a bill that would require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant women so that they can continue to perform their jobs despite medical restrictions due to pregnancy. Under current law, employers cannot discriminate against pregnant women because they are pregnant. But if, for…
One of the most common and difficult issues employees face is when they have family care giving responsibilities that require them to miss some work and their employers refuse to allow them to take sufficient time off to attend to those responsibilities. Most of us are familiar with these types…
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which has been introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate, would give pregnant women the right to reasonable accommodations similar to employees with disabilities. Currently, under Maine and federal law, employers may not discriminate against pregnant employees. However, if an employer would ordinarily…
A New Jersey woman, Dr. Mary Beamer, is pursuing a lawsuit against her former employer, Herman Chiropractic Center. In her lawsuit, she claims Herman Chiropractic fired her because she was pregnant. According to a news report about the case, Dr. Beamer claims that she suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, which is…
On May 16, 2011, the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC) unanimously found that Total Property Services, Inc. unlawfully discriminated against Heather Hider because she was pregnant. Ms. Hider worked for Total Property Services as a cleaner from January 2009 to September 2009. According to the MHRC investigative report, Ms. Hider…