A pregnant Washington state woman says that she was fired for being pregnant at the restaurant she was working at.
The manager did it via text message, and yes, you read it correctly, for being pregnant! She went on to share a screenshot of the text messages between her and her manager on her Facebook profile, and they immediately went viral.
Kameisha Denton, now a former employee of the Jersey Mike’s sub shop chain, asked the Facebook community if firing her in this situation was legal. The manager doesn’t even attempt to disguise the reason of why Dentin is being fired in the message, and he makes it perfectly clear that it’s because she is pregnant.
She went on to say that she asked her manager for an updated schedule as soon as she realized she hadn’t been assigned shifts at work. It was then when she got fired, because “it’s not a good time” for the sub shop to employ a person that needs time off, TO HAVE A BABY!
She says:
“I was just like in shock, it took me a minute to face reality. I was like this is really happening.”
The Washington state law states that it’s “unfair practice” for an employer to terminate or demote a woman due to pregnancy or childbirth, or to refuse to hire or promote her for that reason. The owner of Jersey Mike’s franchise, Tim Trieb, says that “it never ever should have happened” and it’s their company’s policy to treat everyone equally. The manager who fired Denton has since resigned, according to t KIRO-TV, and Denton had been offered her job back. However, she told them: “thanks – but no thanks!”.