DISMISS A PREGNANT EMPLOYEE?

System

EE is pregnant for the second time in less than a year. She exhausted her FMLA/short-term disability with the last pregnancy (we count on a rolling 12-month schedule). She has exhausted her personal leave and is on LWOP; brings in regular Dr's. notes saying 'off another month; will re-evaluate'. Department wants to let her go; they say she's not a stellar employee (eval meets standards; no discipline) & basically they want to take advantage of any opportunity to let her go. Our policy says that ee's requesting LWOP have to show benefit to the city, & she wrote letter saying benefit to city is she's trained, blah blah blah. Department granted LWOP for last pay period; not wanting to do it again. I'm uncomfortable unless they can show 'hardship', which I don't think they can do, & they will probably argue they don't have to. It's an entry level position easily replaced temporarily or regular. Any sage advice? Thanks in advance; this forum rocks!

marc

The big thing here is to be consistent. If other EEs have gotten additional LWOP for illnesses, you have created a precedent that will cut against you in this case. If you cannot show that you treated the pregnant EE the same way you did other EES, then you are headed for trouble.

Gillian3

Marc is correct. You need to research how many other instances you might have had where employees were provided additional leave within a one year period. This person has to be treated the same as you would treat others.

Balloonman

But if it has not happened many times or rarely, being pregnant is not an illness......you can treat them the way you have treated others.....so if you have termed others you can term her..... Have your t's crossed and i's dotted.......... ;-)
My $0.02 worth!
DJ The Balloonman

Don D

But be really careful the department doesn't convince you to hang your hat on the 'not a stellar employee' piece of your puzzle. Or you'll be raising your right hand and defining stellar and trying to convince a jury that "Evaluation meeting standards + no discipline = reason for termination".

If you determine that you have consistently not allowed this type of continuing leave in other circumstances, and there is no way her lawyer can point to one where you deviated, and there's no state law to the contrary, you can simply tell her there is no safety net for her.

Rockie

As others have said...look at what you have done in the past with others with a temporary disability...and go with that. If you have not advanced additional leave to others with temp disability,then you are within your rights to term because of exhaustion of FMLA leave. However, a couple of cautions....her performance should not enter into this as there appears to be no documentation to support this...leave this out of it totally. Also, you may want to check your state laws to see if they give any type of additional leave for the birth of a child. (some states do).

Balloonman

So did you fire the mother to be? Let us know.
My $0.02 worth!
DJ The Balloonman

Pork

SANDYK: Replace your "expected mother" with a "broken leg" situation for a man, surely your city has had one of those. Now apply the very same actions previously applied to the "broken leg/bone situation" to this expecting mother situation and you will have followed your precident setting mode for the pregnant mom with no leave available. Forget you ever heard anything about her performance.

PORK