Rigths for pregnant employees

Question

Jemima started a job at Easy-Clean, a chain of dry cleaners, four weeks ago. She

works in a small shop and does not do the dry cleaning herself (although this is done on

the premises). She works behind the till, taking the clothes from the customers and

handing out the tickets.

She has just found out that she is pregnant, something that she did not about when she

started work. Her Doctor says it would not be good for her health or her pregnancy if she continued in her current role as the fumes from the dry cleaning fluid could have a

bad effect.

When she tells her manager of the pregnancy, he gets angry and says that if he had

known that she was pregnant, he would not have given her a job.

1. What obligations does Easy-Clean have in these circumstances?

2. What rights and remedies are available to Jemima?

Answer 1

Firstly, I do not answer questions posted on any tutoring forum, in their entirety. Likely, a student has been asked the posted question by their Professor. Therefore, the question is posed for that student to answer, and not me. Secondly, I cannot properly answer any legal question without knowing all of the facts and circumstances regarding the given situation. Accordingly, the following response to the question posed will only be a small synopsis of an educated opinion.

 

When reading a legal question, especially for essay writing purposes when there is no time clock to contend with, it is important to learn to extract all of the issues and legal concepts you can detect. Even if the call of the question is only asking you to discuss certain specific issues or concepts, it is still good training for your brain, and good practice to acknowledge as many issues and concepts as you can. This will surely come in handy when your Professor gives you an open-ended essay, with no particular call of the question to speak of, and simply says “discuss”.

To address the given call of the question, you must first determine if Easy-Clean owes a duty or responsibility to their employee who is now pregnant. If so, where does this duty/responsibility come from? Is it merely a level or reasonable care or something more? Is it a duty based on statutory law- federal or state? Being able to accurately discern what rule or law applies will help to answer a legal question more quickly and accurately. After all, for a legal matter to be present, there must be a legal claim to be argued.

Once you’ve determined that there is a legal claim to hang your hat on, you can then determine what specific arguments can be made to attain legal recourse. The remedies you request will depend upon the supporting facts you have as evidence, which will warrant those remedies being granted. 

I will say, Jemima has protections under the law, and Easy-Clean does have a responsibility to Jemima as a pregnant employee. Being that Jemima has protections under the law, she has rights, and as such if Easy-Clean does not uphold its responsibility to Jemima, Jemima will have remedies at law.

Hopefully, with this limited response to this question, I have at least given you some tips to be able to successfully answer this question, and questions like it, yourself.

Happy studying! :)