The ACLU of Maryland is alleging that an Annapolis economic advisor fired a woman last year due to the fact that she was pregnant.
In a letter sent Wednesday, the company claims the firm affiliated along with Northwestern Mutual violated point out and federal anti-discrimination laws — also as Maryland law versus wrongful discharge — as quickly as the firm terminated Leslie Ann Bentley in August. She possessed worked there due to the fact that June.
The ACLU asked the firm for an apology to Bentley, lost wages for a year, and reimbursement of health care prices connected to prenatal treatment and the birth of her son. The letter was dealt with to to Michael Chartos, the Northwestern Mutual economic advisor whose firm employed Bentley, and Raymond J. Manista, senior vice president–total guidance and secretary for Northwestern Mutual.
“We chance that this problem can easily be dealt with short of formal legal action, although, we are fully all set to relocate forward if her quite realistic requests are denied,” the letter states.
A spokeswoman for Northwestern Mutual said the firm is checking out the allegations.
“We were not aware of this matter until we received the letter today,” spokeswoman Betsy Hoylman said in an email to The Baltimore Sun.
Chartos did not respond to a request for comment.
At problem is the dimension of the Annapolis firm. Firms along with fewer compared to 15 staff members are exempt from point out and federal anti-discrimination laws. After Bentley filed a complaint along with the Maryland Commission on the subject of Civil Rights in September, the commission closed it in November due to the fact that an investigator concluded that the firm possessed fewer compared to 15 employees, according to the ACLU.
The ACLU contends that assessment was incorrect. The company says Bentley was an employee of Northwestern Mutual, as suggested by the provide letter she received as quickly as she was hired and the company’s letterhead on the subject of every one of the introductory components she received.
“There’s no question that Northwestern Mutual has actually much more compared to 15 staff members and that anti-discrimination laws use to them,” said Nick Steiner, an ACLU attorney. “Every little thing pointed to her being a Northwestern Mutual employee.”
A spokesperson for the Maryland Commission on the subject of Civil Rights did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The letter alleges that 2 weeks after Bentley educated her bosses she was pregnant, she was told “the firm can not afford to have actually a pregnant employee that called for leave from job at the moment her child was due,” although she available to job from home.
Bentley, a 35-year-old Glen Burnie resident, said she was excited to begin the office task after years of functioning in the restaurant industry.
“I was devastated from the whole thing,” she said of the firing. “I wouldn’t prefer just what happened to me to happen to any person else.”
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