For many women in the workplace, pregnancy discrimination is alive and well. It can happen anywhere, regardless of the industry, and can have lasting emotional and financial effects of a mother-to-be and her family. Recently, a former employee at San Carlos-based Natera filed a lawsuit claiming she too was a victim of pregnancy discrimination. The kicker about her lawsuit is that her former company provides services to pregnant women, such as “preconception and prenatal testing services.”While employed at Natera, the woman, Blain Johnson, worked as a senior manager of content marketing. According to her suit, Johnson claims that even though Natera is in the business of helping pregnant women, she still “had to deal with the politics of pregnancy, and now she is suing for discrimination after she claims she was fired for getting pregnant.” She said:“I think there are so many more stories out there just like this and we just don’t hear about them because people need jobs. When I spoke out about this, I ended up without a job.”

Pregnant Woman; image courtesy of
PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com

So what happened? What kind of pregnancy discrimination did Johnson allegedly face? Well, according to her suit, shortly after she announced her pregnancy, her responsibilities changed. She said, “I was told I would no longer be managing staff.” Additionally, “she and another pregnant employee were asked to do undercover market research.” According to an internal email, a “male senior executive instructed the two pregnant women to get their blood drawn at a competitor to see where Natera had knowledge gaps.” When discussing the request, Johnson said, “I was pretty appalled that they were asking me to use my son as a vehicle for market research.”To make matters worse, when she returned from maternity leave, Johnson claims she was demoted and said, “I thought there must be some mistake, there’s no way they’re demoting me.” She added, “When I left, I was up for promotion. Now I’m suddenly demoted?”Concerned, she reached out to HR for some answers but was allegedly fired as a result. When talking about her experience, she said:“This was a really sad wake-up call, and especially that it was happening at a women’s health company, at a prenatal genetic testing company. If you can’t get equality there, where are you going to find an equal work environment?”She added that having two children and adjusting to the demands of having a newborn is exhausting and difficult enough and said that she hopes her son will have a hard time believing that his mom was discriminated against when he's older. She said, “I hope the story we tell him is, you know, ‘Look how we fought for women’s rights and people’s rights, this was the outcome.’ But this really ruined my first year with my son.”How has Natera responded to the allegations? For starters, the company issued a statement saying it “can’t comment on employee matters.” However, it pushed back against the allegation that the company fired Johnson. Instead, Natera claims Johnson “resigned voluntarily and wasn’t aware of any lawsuit.” Additionally, the statement added:“The company is committed to creating a diverse and empowered workforce, and to complying with all applicable labor and employment regulations.”

Sources:

Ex-Worker At Prenatal Testing Firm Claims She Was Fired For Getting PregnantGetting Pregnant, Getting Fired: Discrimination Cases Persist Despite 40-Year-Old Law