Last month, we discussed a Florida woman who was fired from her job at the Southland Christian School not because she was pregnant and the school didn’t want to pay for her benefits — that would have been illegal — but because she’d sinned by having sex with her fiance in the first place.
She’s suing, of course.
Las Vegas’s Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino did Southland one better by firing the 8-months pregnant Melodee Megia, not because she was pregnant and they didn’t want to pay for her benefits — that would have been illegal — but because she said “bye bye” to a departing guest instead of the more standard “goodbye.”
Seriously. This is the hotel’s claim. I think I feel the most sorry for the hotel’s attorney, who will have to go into court (Ms. Megia has filed a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit) and insist, with a straight face, that she was fired solely because she said “bye bye.”
© 2012 by Bill Bickel unless otherwise noted.
The hotel better have a paper trail with the policy spelled out, documented reprimands, and other people receiving the same discipline or it’s going to be a very short trial. Even then the hotel’s implied argument is “Judge, we always treat our employees like crap.”
I used to work at Well Known Coffee Chain, and got chewed out, hardcore, in a sit-down, lock the door one-on-one conversation with my manager, PLUS a disciplinary write-up, for saying to a customer “Have a good day” instead of “Have a great day.”
Don’t tell me what kind of day to have…
Way to be impartial, Bill. I mean it’s not like church’s try to teach morality, and having a pregnant, unmarried woman teaching the children isn’t setting a bad example, to their way of thinking.
Sure, the second one sounds absurd, but I notice you didn’t post a link to whatever article you got this story from. And media outlets would never distort the truth for a good headline.
Actually, Todd, she was married by the time she was fired. And she was fired after she’d been pregnant for some time, right after she requested maternity benefits. So yeah, I think the church also teaches that hypocrisy is wrong.
And honestly, the “bye bye” story? I did mean to add the link, but got sidetracked. But I read several different accounts, because it seemed so ridiculous that I thought it might have been an Onion story somebody took too seriously, but the facts do seem to be exactly as stated.
What the church teaches and what the church’s school teaches are not necessarily identical. More to the point: The church has more or less complete freedom in the hiring, firing, promotion, and pay of people who form the leadership of the church… the free exercise clause of the first amendment trumps federal employment law. Secular employees of the church, on the other hand, are generally not exempted. (There’s been some recent court cases on this subject, so labor lawyers are still figuring out what, exactly, to tell their clients that are associated with churches, and I’m not even going to pretend that I’ve done the research.)
Where federal law applies, it applies, but where it doesn’t apply, state law applies. Most states allow “at-will” employment, meaning that anyone can quit, or be fired, whenever they feel like it (unless, of course, federal law puts in a limitation, or a contract exists.)
So, even if a person is fired for having sex while unmarried or for saying something (or nothing) to customers, typically they do NOT have a case of wrongful termination, because the employer doesn’t have to have a good reason, or even any reason, to terminate an employee, in the absence of a contract.
But when federal law does apply, “at-will” employment no longer applies. The question of whether the reason for termination given is a pretext covering a real reason which is a violation of federal law (or a contract) is a question of fact and a jury will decide that question. (In the real world, before the trial there is a period of “discovery”, where the plaintiff is allowed to examine documents and question witnesses under oath to discover potential evidence for the trial. If they find the email that says “get rid of her before she requests maternity benefits”, or some such, a generous settlement offer quickly follows. If a paper trail showing that they’ve been considering terminating her for, say, more than ten months, a much, much less generous settlement offer will come out… along with a motion for summary judgment.)
A friend of mine works for a company that doesn’t treat its employees well, and recently downsized by finding reasons to fire people for infractions of the rules. One employee ate a bag of potato chips in the break room but disposed of the bag in the trash can by his desk and was fired for “eating at his desk”. My friend came in a few days later to find the bosses going through his work area looking for forbidden items, company property out of place or anything actionable. They found nothing. My friend resigned then and there, figuring that waiting three days for the official layoff date wasn’t worth the $38 per month he’d get in unemployment benefits and they’d just plant something in his work area and fire him anyway.
No point in suing; the company doesn’t have any money.
If they’re that close to bankruptcy, it might be worthwhile to file the suit anyway… if they get forced into bankruptcy, there’s a bunch of “clawback” rules that let you try to recover money paid out to others (like owners or executives pulling money out of the company.)