Know Your Pregnancy Rights
Posted in Employee Rights
Parent or a parents-to-be deserve to be treated fairly by employers. If you feel that you are not being treated fairly as a working parent of working parent-to-be, be informed of your rights and speak with your employer about them. These are your rights:
Your pregnancy must be treated like any other employee disability or medical condition.
If your company employs 15 or more employees, your employer has no right to discriminate against you just because you are pregnant or are going through pregnancy related-conditions.
Pregnancy should be treated as any other temporary medical disability. There are state and local laws to protect you against pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
You can't be fired because you're pregnant or may become pregnant.
An employer can't fire, deny a job, or deny a promotion to a woman because of her pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions as long as she can perform the major functions of her job.
Note: An employer is not legally required to make it easier for a pregnant woman to do her job.
You can't be forced to take leave as long as you can do your job.
As long as you can do your job, you can't be forced to take a leave by your employer on the basis of being pregnant. If you were absent from work because of a pregnancy-related situation and you recover, you can't be forced to remain on leave until you have given birth.
You're entitled to the same benefits received by other employees with medical conditions.
As an employee you must be entitled to the same level of medical benefits, temporary disability insurance and leave received by other employees with other medical conditions.
You can take part of your maternity leave before your baby is born.
The Family and Medical Leave Act states that you can take part of your unpaid maternity leave even before you are scheduled to give birth.
This applies when you are physically unable to go to work and perform your duties due to pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions. Your job should be or will be protected for a total of 12 weeks. This includes the time before and after you give birth.
The Family and Medical Leave Act applies if:
- You are an employee of a company who employs 50 or more employees.
Or,
- You work for a local, state or federal government.
- You have worked for your company for one year or at least 1,250 hours during the previous year.
You are entitled to insurance coverage for your wife's pregnancy-related conditions if your company's health plan includes spousal coverage.
You must be offered insurance coverage for your wife's pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions if your company's health plan includes spousal coverage.
You cannot be denied the standard benefits if you are a single mother-to-be.
Pregnancy benefits should not be limited to married employees only. Single mothers-to-be should be offered standard benefits as well.
