#FMLA #maternityleave #discrimination #Texas #employmentlaw
Hey y’all, need some advice here. 🤔 My wife is due early August and recently put in her FMLA application. However, her company suddenly placed her on a performance plan, despite her consistently great numbers. Seems a bit fishy, right?
Now, they’re planning to review her performance mid-July, just weeks before her due date. Can they legally fire her so close to her maternity leave? And if so, do you think we could pursue a discrimination lawsuit or at least get unemployment benefits?
To make matters worse, the company’s performance metrics seem rigged against her, and even her managers admit it. 😡 It’s a stressful situation, especially with her blood pressure rising. Can she start her leave early in Texas?
Any advice or similar experiences to share would be greatly appreciated. We want to make sure she’s protected during this vulnerable time. Thanks in advance! 🙏
Possible Solution:
– Consult with an employment lawyer who specializes in discrimination and FMLA cases. They can provide valuable insight and guidance on the best course of action.
Texas is an at will state, so yes, they can. Has she actually been fired or put on a performance plan?
As you’ve written it doesn’t sound good. However, I find it hard to believe that hr is going against your wife’s managers and stuck her on a PIP, just because she’s about to go on leave. It’s not like hr gets to pocket the money if they fire her before having to sponsor her leave?
She cannot be fired because she’s pregnant. However, if she’s underperforming or has other disciplinary problems, or if her role is being eliminated, then yes she can be terminated regardless of being pregnant.
They’re making or building their case early enough you’d never be able to prove it is/was discriminatory.
Just plan on her not having a job to go back to after baby.
A performance plan is not discrimination, it shows she isn’t meeting expectations and they are giving her a chance to do so. Also per your other comments, a RIF or elimination of position has nothing to do with retaliation for being pregnant either. Pregnancy is only protected if she is actually fired for being pregnant and no other legitimate reason. You may believe there is another reason but you’ll need to prove that. From what you are stating here it doesn’t sound like you’d be able to unfortunately. If she does in fact get let go, you should try to negotiate severance to cover part of leave or ask if she can “stay” through her maternity leave. STD for maternity reasons wouldn’t affect the company’s insurance rates much.
The timing isn’t good, but you’d have to prove pregnancy discrimination. The fact that their placing her on a. PIP is interesting. She’s not as automatically protected as one might think. If they are cutting headcount, it could be classified as a reorganization and she’d be let go. This is the easiest route for them to do this. What’s the reasoning for the PIP?
If the rating scale is the same for everyone and is equally applied, then she isn’t performing as well as she is telling you, if her % rating company wide is low. Just because she is performing the best on her team doesn’t mean they all don’t suck.
ETA: you say in the comments that this is all part of a larger strategy for reducing headcount and saving money. It sounds like her performance is lacking compared to the company as a whole, and she is one of the higher paid people, so I can’t see why you think this has anything to do with her maternity leave request. You said she’s not the only one on a PIP.
Have her talk to her doctor and see how early she can go out on FLMA. A lot of doctors have no issues with signing people out four weeks in advance which would be before review. Then she will be protected by FLMA.
File a complaint for pregnancy through the EEOC but don’t get your hopes up. The fact that she was placed on a PIP after requesting FMLA for pregnancy is your strongest argument and should be enough to trigger an investigation. Much of the case will depend on the language in the PIP provided to all the other employees and how all the evaluations are handled. If they’re all placed on the same plan and all let go your case disappears. Your wife needs to focus on those reviews and her other weakest points so that they don’t have a clear path to termination.
You two also need to sit down and have an honest conversation about the future together. Is this really the kind of place she wants to work with a newborn at home? If they’re willing to try shady shit like this what else will they be willing to risk to make your lives hell?
You can argue that a termination is for discriminatory or illegal reasons. However, you can’t choose the metrics that the company uses to gauge performance.
Does the company apply these same metrics to everyone? Have they done so in the past consistently or are they doing so on a consistent basis now?
Being the best player on the worst team in the league isn’t a flex. Not saying your wife is on the worst team. But being the highest performer but poor compared to the rest of the company is still a problem.
It is not legal to fire someone for being Pregnant but sometime times HR will make up a reason and hopes that you wont file a complaint with EEOC within the short time limit [https://www.worker.gov/actions-eeoc-claim/](https://www.worker.gov/actions-eeoc-claim/)
After the baby is born speak with a civil rights lawyer and give them the EEOC complaint no
I actually had this conversation with someone who came in as a QA manager at one of my vendors.
Just because someone is the highest performer doesn’t mean that everyone just really sucks. That’s like saying “Yay I have the best room on the Titanic!”
The whole team he inherited was getting about 40-50% of company metrics, with ONE person, “the best” getting a couple 60%s in two metrics, with 40-50% in the others.
Yes they were the best. They still weren’t worth a damn. Of the team of 6 he inherited, two are still there, and (now) 6 more came on out of school at various levels. 4 new grads and 2 with a couple years experience. The lead engineer I think had 5 years. Those 2 who stayed took trainings, learned how to do things, etc. The other 4? 2 found new jobs, 1 retired, and 1 played the “you can’t fire me” card. The secret, though, is that they COULD fire him….
So, long of the short, just because your wife has the best metrics on the team doesn’t mean she’s meeting metrics. Everyone could be jacked up.
Sounds like she works in a call centre , all the targets are extremely hard to meet and out of the control of the agent, to meet all of them you have to bend over backwards and be lucky aswell, the only way she will have job security there mate is if she can brown nose her manager so that’s my advice.
Basically all the expectations are either impossible or extremely difficult so at all times middle management have ammunition to fire employees, middle management in call centres are especially egotistical so the only people that have security are people that bend over backwards and brown nose the manager.
No paper trail. Get a lawyer and report them to EEOC
Get an atty – look up Murrell-Travland v. On Q Financial . Read the case , sounds eerily similar .
They are documenting and getting ready to fire her. Hire a lawyer and plan on her being unemployed
The reason why us HR folks get a little snippy sometimes is exactly what OP is doing. Multiple people are saying it’s not discrimination, but OP only says :but isn’t it though? It’s suspicious, right? There’s no additional facts, clarification, etc. I liken it to how when a person is pulled over and they say they are a sovereign citizen and they don’t need a driver’s license. The police offer starts to explain and the person starts arguing back and not listening. You’re gonna get a little annoyed.