What can I do if I’ve been working at a restaurant for 1 1/2 years and now that I’m pregnant my boss has cut my hours considerably?
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What can I do if I’ve been working at a restaurant for 1 1/2 years and now that I’m pregnant my boss has cut my hours considerably?
I went from working full-time to now not even working close to part-time. What I mean by that is I used to work 5 days a week, depending if they were busy. The last 2 weeks my boss has had me come in for only 2-3 hours. When I’m working that short shift he ignores me. I’ve asked him multiple times about why he’s cut my hours but instead of him responding to me, he either ignores me and pretends he didn’t hear me or he gets very frustrated with me and puts his hands on his head and walks away. He gives me no motive when he sees that there’s no customer he tells me go home.
Asked on February 2, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Oregon
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
Contact the federal EEOC or your state's equal/civil rights division: since pregnancy is considered a "disability" for employment discrimination purposes, you may be suffering disability-related employment discrimination. If so, you may be entitled to monetary compensation, and the EEOC and/or the state agency can help you get this. (Another option is to hire an employment law attorney and file a lawsuit, but since asking the government to help is free, there's no reason not to try that first.)
It would not be employment discrimination if there was some non-pregnancy-related reason for this, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on what you write: for example, say the issue was that the business had a downturn--then you'd expect all employees would have hours cut, not just the pregnant woman.
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