BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A firefighter filed a federal civil rights lawsuit saying she was discriminated against when she became pregnant.
The Associated Press reported that Regina Scates, 37, said the department’s actions violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act.
Scates alleges she was unfairly disciplined last year for taking pregnancy-related sick days and then forced to take an unpaid maternity leave, according to the report. She said she was still capable of working when she was placed on leave.
She is seeking unspecified monetary damages.
“They treat pregnancy leave different than they treat other injury or sick leave,” Thomas Bucci, her attorney, said. “Our claim is that is a discriminatory practice. A change in that policy is one of the things we’d like to see come of this lawsuit.”
Scates was placed on administrative duty after she provided the department with a doctor’s note in May 2013, according to the report. The note informed the city that she should not be lifting anything over 35 pounds or working any shift longer than eight hours during the remainder of her pregnancy, according to the lawsuit.
She was then given verbal and written warnings in August after taking seven sick days, something the department termed as “excessive absences,” according to the report.
“The defendant’s conduct was even more outrageous because it was fully aware that the plaintiff was pregnant and had been absent due to her pregnancy-related condition,” Bucci said.
Scates, who gave birth in January, believes she could have continued her light-duty work for at least two more months, her attorney said.
The city later changed the leave to a paid sick leave, under the Family and Medical Leave Act, after Scates complained, according to the lawsuit.
Scates alleges that because she was placed on maternity leave early she was forced to exhaust that paid leave before her child was born, according to the report.
William Kaempffer, the city’s public safety spokesman, said the lawsuit will be addressed “at the appropriate time, manner and forum.”
“However,” he said, “we’re very cognizant of complying with the law. She never missed a single day of pay either during her pregnancy or since she had her child.”