Worker: My Boss Told Me I Should Stay Home With My Baby, Fired Me While I Was On Maternity Leave

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/01/05/3607823/doughnut-plant-fired-pregnant/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=tptop3&utm_campaign=tptop3


BY BRYCE COVERT POSTED ON JANUARY 5, 2015 AT 9:04 AM UPDATED: JANUARY 5, 2015 AT 10:11 AM

Mekhala Sofsky recently filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming that her former employer the Doughnut Plant twice demoted her after learning of her pregnancy and then fired her while she was on maternity leave.

Sofsky told her supervisors she was pregnant in July of 2012, after which she claims one told her he didn’t think she would return to work after giving birth and that she “should really stay home with her baby,” according to the lawsuit. A month later she told her supervisors she couldn’t keep working 40 hours a week due to morning sickness. The same month, the lawsuit alleges that she was demoted from her salaried position as personnel manager overseeing two locations to an hourly one managing just one store.


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“Up until I told them [that I was pregnant] I had been doing really well,” she said. “No complaints, no issues whatsoever and then basically after I told them it started going south.” The lawsuits says her bosses explained the demotion was because they weren’t satisfied with her performance.

In December of that year, she says she was demoted a second time from a manager to a shift supervisor, less than two weeks before she was to begin her maternity leave. She says her pay was also cut from a $50,000 annual salary to $14 an hour while her bonus was reduced and her vacation and sick time were eliminated.

FULL story at link.