Yesterday my wife went in to finalize a deal as a nurse practitioner for employment with the managing partner of a medical group and to pick up her schedule of benefits. She is a new grad NP currently working as an RN at a hospital where this Physician is affiliated. After he told her that he wanted to hire her, was not interviewing anyone else and would like her to start on a specific date, she said that would be great and divulged the fact that in 6 months she would need to take a 6 week leave for her pregnancy. He did not know she was pregnant (she is only 16 weeks). She even told him that she was aware that the leave would be without pay.
At that point, the meeting went south with a negative reaction by the interviewing physician stating that this was going to be a major hang up that he didn't know if this was something they could work through. He said that he was going to look at what options were available to accomodate her if there were any. She left the meeting not really knowing where she stood with the hire but feeling like she was no longer likely to be hired.
Today, while she is working at her current job, another partner of the same physician's group walks in and asks one of my wife's coworkers if she would be interested in the same job described above. This partner does not know my wife. My wife was sitting 10 feet away an just listened in on the conversation. Well, my wife's coworker listened to his pitch and stated that she thought that she wasn't graduating for another several months and that she thought that theey were going to hire my wife. He then began to tell my wife's coworker that they were not going to hire my wife because she was pregnant and would have to take leave at the end of the year. After that conversation ended, he then placed a phone call to someone while sitting just a few feet from my wife to another person who my wife has worked with previously that they decided to not hire my wife because she is pregnant and that they may now look for a male NP.
In my opinion this is a civil rights violation according to the pregnancy discrimination act. What should we do here? This is tremendously unfair to her, and I am ticked off. She still has not received an official "No" on this hire from the managing partner. Are ther any limitations or exepmptions due to company size (# of employees) for such a discriminatory act?
At that point, the meeting went south with a negative reaction by the interviewing physician stating that this was going to be a major hang up that he didn't know if this was something they could work through. He said that he was going to look at what options were available to accomodate her if there were any. She left the meeting not really knowing where she stood with the hire but feeling like she was no longer likely to be hired.
Today, while she is working at her current job, another partner of the same physician's group walks in and asks one of my wife's coworkers if she would be interested in the same job described above. This partner does not know my wife. My wife was sitting 10 feet away an just listened in on the conversation. Well, my wife's coworker listened to his pitch and stated that she thought that she wasn't graduating for another several months and that she thought that theey were going to hire my wife. He then began to tell my wife's coworker that they were not going to hire my wife because she was pregnant and would have to take leave at the end of the year. After that conversation ended, he then placed a phone call to someone while sitting just a few feet from my wife to another person who my wife has worked with previously that they decided to not hire my wife because she is pregnant and that they may now look for a male NP.
In my opinion this is a civil rights violation according to the pregnancy discrimination act. What should we do here? This is tremendously unfair to her, and I am ticked off. She still has not received an official "No" on this hire from the managing partner. Are ther any limitations or exepmptions due to company size (# of employees) for such a discriminatory act?
