When an employee has to be absent from their employment, the absence generally has to be accounted for through accumulated employee leave or some other type of benefit such as FMLA. There are several reasons an employee would require a leave of absence from their employment, and a common reason is for maternity leave. When an employee uses justified leave, the Kansas or Missouri employer cannot hold the maternity time against the employee or a termination may be considered a wrongful termination based upon pregnancy discrimination.

A school employee that requested an employment absence to care for her new child recently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against her employer after being let go. The school employee had worked as a school psychologist and had made a request to work from home and to work four days a week to care for her child. It is noted the school employee was approved to work from home the previous school year.

work from home the previous school year.

The school employee was informed that she would not be returning to work as a school employee during the next school year. The employer stated the school employee would not return for the next school year due to her past work performance.

While the school employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit was pending, the two parties entered into a settlement agreement. As stated in the settlement agreement, the school paid the former employee $68,950 and the wrongful termination claims against the defendant were dismissed. Employees who are terminated for reasons that may be contrary to presiding laws may benefit from speaking to an experienced attorney about a potential wrongful termination.

Source: San Rafael Patch, “School District Settles Wrongful Termination Lawsuit for $69K,” Nicole Ely, Jan. 24, 2013