Maternity Leave......Getting fired?

Question

I am scheduled to take maternity leave in 2 weeks and my boss is telling people that once i get back to work im going to be fired. Am i protected at all.......any advise??

Answer 1

If you do get fired, you have a great lawsuit....

Talk to your boss. He/she shouldn't be telling your co-workers ANYTHING about your job, your performance, your salary, or his personal feelings about you. That is extremely unprofessional behavior.

Yes, you are protected. If you are fired, call an attorney that specializes in employment issues.

Enjoy being a new mom, and don't worry about your job.

Answer 2

If you are going on leave in two weeks and you have one or more years in your current position and have not use your Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) prior to this maternity leave you are protected for 12 weeks. If you have used your FMLA prior to this leave depending on how long you were off you need to subtract that from 12 weeks and that is how much you will have left for your maternity leave. Come back within the 12 weeks or before and do what is expected of you and there is nothing that your boss can do. If he does find a reason to terminate and you think it is unreasonable and you can prove that he is telling people that he wants to fire you then you can go to the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) office and file a wrongful termination. If your company has an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program, then you could also file a grievance through your company. I hope this helps you and good luck. Talk to your Human Resources department, if you have a good one, they should help you and let them know what your Supervisor is doing. If you feel he is retaliating against you because you told on him then I would let your HR department know about that too. Most companies don't tolerate retaliation from Supervisors to their employees. Here are some websites you can get more information on.

Christine D.
Human Resources Manager

P.S. I am also pregnant and have six weeks left.

Answer 3

Interesting....I had a similar situation, but my boss never told anyone about it beforehand.

You should document what people have told you. You should probably contact an attorney and just talk to them about it. Nobody can be fired.

I was fired after coming back from my leave, because I came down with pneumonia and my baby was also sick. I had used up all my family leave act time off, and I had no vacation time left, so they found the perfect opportunity to fire me.

They waited several weeks to fire me, and had heard through the grapevine that I was thinking of getting pregnant again. They didn't want to keep me around after that.

You really need to get some PROOF that your boss is saying those things....if you can get proof, you might have a case against her/him.

Answer 4

Legally he can not fire you. You are covered under the Family Medical Leave Act. First you should look at the source of the rumors and investigate if the sources are reliable. If the rumors are true you probably don't want to work for that company anyway if the boss is saying things that should remain personal and you at least have 6 weeks to look for a new job.

Answer 5

First I would confront your boss to ask if the rumors are true. People may just be messing with you. If you live in the USA or the UK, then you are protected. Here is what I found in Wikipedia...
Parental leave is the right to take time off work, paid or unpaid, to care for a child or make arrangements for the child's welfare. Often, the term parental leave includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.

In most western countries parental leave is available for those who have worked for their current employer for a certain period of time. In the UK, for instance, working mothers are given the right to 26 weeks of paid leave for each child, 6 weeks at 90% of full pay and 20 weeks at a fixed amount. Women who were employed prior to the commencement of their pregnancy are entitled to an additional 26 weeks unpaid leave. After 1st April 2007, the rules change. All female employees will be entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave. 39 weeks of this leave is paid, with the first six weeks paid at 90% of full pay and the remainder at a fixed rate.

An example of generous parental leave is Sweden, where all working parents are entitled to 18 months' paid leave per child, the cost being shared between employer and State. To encourage greater paternal involvement in child-rearing, a minimum of 3 months out of the 18 is required to be used by the "minority" parent, in practice usually the father, and some Swedish political parties on the Left argue for legislation to oblige families to divide the 18 months equally between both parents. Norway also has similarly generous leave.

The system in Bulgaria is even more generous, providing mothers with 45 days 100% paid sick leave prior the due date, 2 years paid leave, and 1 additional year of unpaid leave. The employeer is obliged to restore the mother to the same position upon return to work. In addition, pregnant women and single mothers cannot be fired.

There is currently a push to expand paid maternity leave in countries such as Australia and the United States. In 2000, parental leave was greatly expanded in Canada from 10 weeks to 35 weeks divided between the two parents, which can be expanded to a year. In Canada parental leave is paid for by the Employment Insurance system.

Answer 6

It depends on the reason that your getting fired. If your boss has a good reason (one that's not related to your pregnancy) than yes you can be fired just like anyone else (most employers are at will employers -- meaning they can fire you if they want just like you can quit if you want). If it's pregnancy related than no, you can't be fired (that's sex discrimination).

advise
talk to your boss. If it's true, find out the reason that he's saying you're gonna be fired. Regardless of what he tells you is the reason, if you believe it's due to your pregnancy, you will need to prove it one way or another. Things like having other employees back you up as far as your work ethic and timeliness and things of that nature will help you if it gets to that point.

Answer 7

Your boss cannot fire you for taking maternity leave. It is against the law. He can however micro mange you to death and find something else to use a reason to fire you. If you do get fired report him to the dept of Labor in your state and to the equal employement opportunity commision. I don't know where you live, but you can easily collect unemployment in IL when something like this happens.

Answer 8

well he is only telling ppl about it is one think I think just wait and as soon you be back and if you get fired tell them that you want a Letter from the company the reason why you're getting fired now if you sign a contract with them you need to read it sometimes they add the exclution that they can fired you at any time if nothing like has been done or sign you're a good to go to get a lawyer there's some important factors like the treath and reveling privacy notice to other employees and a non good reason to be fired if you always on time you dont call in alot and you feel that you give the 100% you can won and is arround 250,000.00 dls compasation from the workforce commision

Answer 9

Yes, you are protected by the government. It is against the Equal Opportunity Enviroment which states no person shall be discriminated against because of race, religion, nor "sex"! And your actually can filed suit against your boss so while out on leave seek consuling from an attorney. It maybe posted on the law in your break room

Answer 10

nope according to your story, if you come back from maternity leave your considered a employee again, if he fires you it's his decision, but as for the grounds for being fire thats a whole different story talk to your local employment resources when the time comes around then you could be more prepared. as for now, at least you still got a job right?