Rachel Sadon
(Photo by Matthew Bisanz)
This post has been updated with a response from UDC.
With a strong D.C. Family Medical Leave Act and the recently enacted Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2014, the District of Columbia already has some of the most robust protections in the country for pregnant women, and those who have recently given birth. But, activists say, that hasn’t guaranteed fair treatment for all workers.
This week, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, First Shift Justice Project, and Andrews Kurth LLP filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Kashawna Holmes for what they claim was her unlawful firing while on maternity leave.
Holmes began working as a program coordinator for the Institute of Gerontology at the University of the District of Columbia in February of 2013. She matched volunteers to elderly adults who need help living independently; her position was subject to an annual grant, which had been renewed for decades.
According to the suit, Holmes was placed on bed rest in July of 2014, about three months before her due date, because her pregnancy was high-risk. Although UDC approved her request for unpaid sick leave under the DCFMLA, the university posted her job online three weeks before her due date—causing Holmes considerable stress when she saw it.
Holmes and her lawyers say the anxiety contributed to medical issues that led to an early birth. Just before she gave birth—when she would have become eligible for 16 weeks of leave, eight of which would have been paid—the university sent a termination notice that said they weren’t renewing her appointment to the position, though it had been re-funded for 2015. The Washington Post first reported on Holmes case.
With a newborn, but without a job or health insurance, Holmes turned to public assistance for the first time as she struggled to find another job. She also alleges another insidious form of discrimination: that she was targeted by her supervisor for being a single mother. From the suit:
Ms. Harrison commented to Ms. Holmes, in front of her coworkers, that she would never have considered having a baby when she was living with a roommate or at home. Ms. Harrison said that by the time she had a baby, she was married and she and her husband had a house together.
At the time these comments were made, Ms. Holmes was living with a roommate and she was not married to her baby’s father, who was then working overseas. Ms. Harrison, aware of these facts, was expressing her belief that Ms. Holmes’ behavior did not conform to her perception of acceptable female gender roles.
“This case is emblematic of the discriminatory animus that some employers hold against single mothers,” said Laura Brown, executive director of First Shift Justice Project. “Underlying an employer’s claims of the inconvenience and disruption of having a new mother out on leave, there often lurks a deeply held-and patently false-stereotype that single mothers are less competent workers.”
UDC did not respond to calls seeking comment. UDC declined to comment about a pending lawsuit or personnel issues.
