Employment Law Information

Sorry if this takes a while… It’s been an ongoing battle and I need to know how to spin this. I am using my union to address this issue, but my next step is the EEOC if this is not handled appropriately.

I am a single mother of two, currently six months pregnant with my third child. Currently, my fiance is working out of town to open another office with his job and is trying to wrap it up before our baby comes. I am a firefighter/paramedic with a large city government and have been employed 4 years, 4 months.

My initial problem began about a year and a half ago when I got a new supervisor who evidently has some issues with anyone who is black or a female. He has literally run everyone out of the territory who is not a white male. I was tolerating him, despite his numerous threats to write me up or give me an administrative hearing or recommend time of without pay. He had done this to approximately 6 other people and they have all since left from working under him. The point it became excessive and I told my immediate fire supervisor (lieutenant) and my next in command (chief) was when he charged at me with his finger in my face while yelling while we stood in a parking lot. (This was witnessed by not only my EMT partner, but also a doctor that was riding in the field with us as part of his training.) I told my lieutenant this was a problem and he agreed, knowing the problems that have been occurring with other paramedics. I then told my Chief and the solution I had come up with (to do a swap with another paramedic to a different territory) and was told he would “have to pray about it” to determine if it was a good idea. These “one on one swaps” are NEVER denied, I should say. However, it was postponed and postponed until I filed a complaint with the administration.

I was at work and began having a miscarriage at 6.5 weeks. I finished the emergency call I was on but immediately left. When I left, I was accused of not completing my paperwork and then later covering it up. I had to endure an administrative hearing, followed by another one because he accused me of lying during the first one. I was backed up by ten other witness statements that I had indeed NOT lied and had given all facts.

I filed a complaint against that supervisor and his immediate supervisor for harrassment, the time he CHARGED at me while yelling and screaming, and for inappropriate comments made by HIS supervisor to me, saying “some women on this job don’t understand their place or their rank and what they can and cannot say”, as well as other derogatory comments about minorities and lesbians on the job. I threatened to file a complaint with the EEOC if this was not addressed.

The only way it was handled was I was moved to a different station months later, but was still occasionally forced to work under the same immediate supervisor, and never getting out from under his supervisor who made those comments. Needless to say, things only escalated.

After being forced into a borderline violent and definite hostile environment to being shuffled around the city, we became pregnant and I am currently six months pregnant. (Due to the insane amount of stress outside of necessity with the job description, I had not only one miscarriage in August, but a second in December.)

Right before I went to “alternative duty” because I am unable to be a firefighter at this time in my condition, I was told I had to “hold over” and complete an emergency call that came in five minutes before my quit time at 7:00 am. (We work 24 hour shifts: 0700-0700.) There was another person who could take the call for me that had just come in for his shift, but his lieutenant wanted him to go to a class and said I had to stay on the ambulance.

At this point, I called my mother, who has been watching my children while I worked since my fiancee is 600 miles away, who said she couldn’t take my younger child to school because she had just vomited all over the car. At my job, we have what is called “two hours emergency leave” for situations such as this. I told the lieutenant I had to leave and when he said I had not been “properly relieved”, I said, “Okay, then I need two hours emergency leave.” This has been granted to other male employees and non-pregnant employees to even go home to take care of a busted water line in their house or track down their family pet that has gotten out of the fence. (Yes, I’m being literal.) Finally, the lieutenant said, “Okay.”

HOWEVER, two months later, I’m advised of an administrative hearing because of this situation… I gave all the facts in which the lieutenant denied that he had agreed to allow me to go. The result is they are trying to give me 240 hours off work without pay, or the equivalent of six weeks because I am no longer on fire company.

Answer:  Make sure you have everything documented.  You need to clearly show where the wheels fell off and what led up to it.  Sounds to me like you can crucify these guys for gender and pregnancy discrimination.  Click here to find out how to document problems at work.  Get it all written up.  Keep a log.  You’re already good at that because of your job. 

Then click here to find a good pre-screened employment attorney in your area.  Get yourself a consultation and the attorney will know exactly what to do next.

 

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