Pregnant New Hire

Submitted by Federated Insurance

Q: We hired a new employee about a week ago and now she is telling us that she is 4 months pregnant, which she did not disclose this during the hiring process. What are the possible ramifications if we terminate her? It looks as if she was seeking employment for health insurance only.

A: It is unlawful to discriminate against employees on the basis of their membership in a protected class, and this includes gender and pregnancy. In fact it is an express violation of federal law (and your state’s law is similar) to take adverse employment action because of a woman’s pregnancy or even her failure to disclose that she is pregnant -- no law requires a woman to do so. We strongly advise against terminating the employment.

Specifically, the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 makes clear that discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions is a form of sex discrimination that is expressly prohibited. State law in your state is consistent on this issue. Therefore, we reiterate our strong advice against any proposal to end the employment of this employee based on her disclosure of being pregnant, or her failure to previously disclose that she was pregnant, or because the employer suspects that she sought “employment for health insurance benefits only.” A decision to end employment based exposes the employer to potential (if not likely) claims of discrimination that may be difficult to defend, if defensible at all.

The best practice and our recommendation is to ignore the fact of the employee’s pregnancy and treat her exactly as you would any other employee from a performance and policy standpoint. She should not be treated any differently, and certainly no worse, on account of the fact that she is pregnant, nor should she be subjected to adverse action because she did not previously disclose she is pregnant (as noted, this was not required of her, nor should the employer have asked).