Wife Pregnant, potentially getting fired, legal recourse?

[djkms]

Little background.

My wife has worked for Macy's for almost 6 years. She started out in California just working a counter then worked her way up to Management within 1 year. She worked the cash office in one of the biggest stores in California for almost 3 years. She never had a write up, verbal warning or anything potentially negative against her the whole time she was in California. She was responsible for $80,000-$1000,000 daily.

When my job situation transferred me to Colorado she also put in a job transfer. Macy's HR messed this all up and never got it processed. So she basically had to reapply with Macy's and started from the ground up again. Well she is working full time in the fine jewelry department.

Almost a year ago to the day she was suspended because she did not call over a loss prevention member to show a piece of jewelry that was worth more than $5,000. She was suspended for a week and put on probation for 1 year. Nothing was lost, stolen or unaccounted for.

Well now it is almost exactly 1 year later (1 week short) and she is suspended again. This time is because a checkmark is in the wrong place. Every jewelry counter has a sign in and sign out sheet for jewelry which the associates use every night and every morning. This sheet has a full month of sign ins and outs and every employee behind the counter has access to it. My wife is very anal attentive and her attention to detail is second to none. Well someone put a check in a "sale" column when the jewelry was not on a sale day. Because this checkmark was done on a day she closed she is taking the fall for it. She is 100% certain she did not make the check mark.

She now has a meeting with HR today and we think Macy's is looking to fire her because she is 6 months pregnant and Christmas season is coming up and they have questioned her if she is going to be able to keep up. If she does get fired it will be a procedural firing, however nothing was lost stolen or unaccounted for.

Do you guys think we have any legal recourse here?

Personally I could care less if she lost her job with Macy's, I can afford her not to work. The problem is her health insurance is through her work right now and we can't afford to lose that. I know we can get cobra if she gets fired but I do not want to afford that.

Thoughts?

 

[Boogie]

Colorado is a fire at will state BUT if she was terminated and feels that she was discriminated against then she has the right to contact the EEOC (equal employment opportunity commision) and they will investigate on her behalf.

http://www.eeoc.gov/field/denver/index.cfm

 

[bsharpe]

+1

 

[othercents]

It is possible especially if there are other cases where they didn't fire someone in the same situation, but fired her. That would mean that her pregnancy was the deciding factor. Also retail stores are typically hiring people during the Christmas season and would typically try to keep someone unless there was a significant issue (IE. stuff that was lost, stollen, or unaccounted for).

 

[djkms]

Well they took her side of the story and she has another meeting with HR on Tuesday. I hate corporations and this is exactly why I dont work for them!

 

[SAZAMA]

best of luck brother, however like stated before Colorado is a "right to work" state and anyone can be fired for just about anything. doesn't sound like she should be working for a bunch of schmucks anyway.

 

[djkms]

Thanks Tony. I agree Macy's (at least the ones in Colorado) is run by a bunch of clowns. I figure even if she does get fired there is not much we can do but bend over and take it. Its disgusting how much pull and money these big corporations have and they dont care about us individually, only their bottom dollar.

It just sucks for my wife because she is such a dedicated and hard worker who never complains and always goes above and beyond what is asked of her and she does this all for less than $10 a hour...

 

[SAZAMA]

Dude have her try Shane Co. one my regulars works there and says its a great company to work for. Good Luck

 

[djkms]

1 half mile east of I-25? Open Monday through Friday till 8

Saturday and Sunday till 5

 

[that0neguy1126]

What sucks is they have the history with the write ups on her. Even if they didn't though, it really wouldn't matter. Unless you can prove they are discriminating against her, like boogie said, its an at will state, which means they can fire her for any reason they want to (or they don't even have to give a reason).

What is going to be a problem though, is benefits if they do fire her. If they do fire her, and she finds another place, it takes anywhere from 30-90 days for benefits to kick in. If you have benefits though, you could fill out a "life changing event" form to modify benefits and add her to yours (unless she already is, then there's no problem).

 

[djkms]

On the plus side my works open enrollment is in November so I could add her to my works group policy. Problem is I work for a small company so her cost is completely out of pocket. I did a quote for her a while back and it was somewhere around $600 per month. That is a huge kick to the nads especially if she loses her job, so not only are we out her income but we will also be out another $600 a month for her insurance, still better than paying for baby out of pocket though.

 

[Boogie]

Go outsource for health insurance. The company I work for has a "benefit" package of health insurance that costs $1200.00 per month for family...that right, they call it a benefit..Anyways, when I was married the wife found insurance through anthem for around $400.00 per month.

 

[djkms]

Mark she has a pre existing condition now, group health cannot deny coverage for pre existing, individual plans can unless she is HIPAA eligible which she was not when we looked into it a few months back.

 

[dv3]

look into chp+

 

[othercents]

You can add her to your group policy if she looses her job since that is a qualifying event. Having the baby would be another qualifying event, so at that time you should be able to remove her and add both the baby and your spouse to an individual plan. She shouldn't be listed as having a pre-existing condition anymore, but if you want more kids I would suggest Kaiser since there individual plan typically covers pregnancies.

Find a good individual insurance rep that can walk you through all this and double check on the qualifying events.

 

[othercents]

look into chp+

income limits with chp+. Family of 3 can't make more than $3,861 per month.

 

[Wicked Color]

Colorado= At will employment= You can get fired for anything, or nothing, no legal recourse.

 

[othercents]

Colorado= At will employment= You can get fired for anything, or nothing, no legal recourse.

Unless you are being discriminated against.

 

[othercents]

Actually Colorado courts have been setting recent precedent for wrongful termination if the employee is fired without cause. Another thing that the courts have looked at is the employee handbooks and companies not following the rules setup for terminating employees. In some cases the handbook has been considered a contract between the employer and employee, so not following those rules would be a breach of contract.

You still have possible discrimination and all the lawyer has to do is get the judge to allow them employee record discovery of all employees who have ever had been disciplined twice and not terminated. This could show that they terminated your wife where if she wasn't pregnant they wouldn't have.

Btw. Hopefully this discussion won't be needed and your wife continues to work.

 

[that0neguy1126]

You still have possible discrimination and all the lawyer has to do is get the judge to allow them employee record discovery of all employees who have ever had been disciplined twice and not terminated. This could show that they terminated your wife where if she wasn't pregnant they wouldn't have.

You still have to prove they terminated her because she was pregnant. Just because they didn't terminate other employee's after two disciplinary actions, doesn't mean they discriminated against her. It is very very very hard to prove you were discriminated against if you are being fired. unless you have something in writing you are pretty much SoL.

Like othercents said though, lets hope it doesn't come to that. Would make sure your wife is calm in the meeting with HR and doesnt do or say anything that could jeopardize her job if they were not planning on firing her before.

Also another thing, if they do fire her, she would still qualify for unemployment (even if they claim it is for cause, most employer's do not dispute unemployment since they pay for it regardless). Not sure how the benefits would work though.