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Comment by samstave | Hacker News Reader

I agree to treat it like a firing, and that she should move on. This just sounded super fishy -- I'll ask her about the contract/agreement.

Some time ago, when my wife got pregnant, she was let go from her job and they specifically told her it was because she was pregnant. She filed suit against them (ongoing) because they specifically said it was due to the pregnancy.

Sometimes companies do really shady stuff (like to my wife) and potentially hiring people for 4-month stints. Other times, they could just be using this as an "easier" way to fire someone - which is a bit passive aggressive.

I'll have to find out which it is in this case.

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An important distinction to make here is that pregnant women are effectively a protected class. Your wife wasn't able to file suit because the company had been shady; she was able to file suit because the company violated employment law. Here it's not so clear what recourse your friend might have.

You mention "protected class". Would really appreciate some details.

In the US, there are laws specifically protecting people from being fired from jobs for certain reasons.

These almost universally include race, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, becoming pregnant, being required to participate in a mandatory action like jury duty, and I think being recalled to the military if you are on inactive status.

If an employer violates these, the ex-employee has grounds to sue.

Sexual orientation is not universally a protected class. I don't know about non-US employment law, but at least in the US, I believe it is on a state-by-state basis.

In most parts of the US, we have "at will" employment, which means it's legal to fire someone for almost any reason. You can fire someone because you don't like their hair, or because they drive a Ford and you like Toyota, or for any other stupid reason you can think of, with only a few exceptions.

The exceptions are called "protected classes". It's illegal to fire someone for their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation (in some states), pregnancy, or age.

or illness.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_class people have not mentioned: disability (if an ADA qualified disability, such as delayed sleep phase disorder,) genetic information, age (if over 40,) family status (having kids, etc,) veteran status.

I found it disquieting that DSPS was recognized by the ADA (meaning that one can't "discriminate" against an employee that refuses to show up during core office hours if they can convince a doctor to "diagnose" their sleeping habits as DSPS). But then I did some minimal research and found that you can in fact fire someone for refusing to show up at 10AM (or whatnot); you just have to be consistent about enforcing that rule with everyone.

And so we have another reason that companies might need to adopt fascist office hours: not doing so might get them sued.

(I strongly believe in the idea of the ADA and am not suggesting that the proverbial baby be thrown out with the &c &c).

The sister of a friend was also fired the week after she informed her employer that she was pregnant. Of course, these folks didn't explicitly say she was fired because she was pregnant (this is in the US, specifically in Texas). I was surprised that this kind of stuff happens. The employer was a small business btw.

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