Employee Claims She Was Wrongfully Fired After Employer Learned Of Her Pregnancy

A common theme in pregnancy discrimination cases, our wrongful termination attorneys in Citrus County, Florida have learned, is that pregnant employees are often fired after employers learn of their pregnancy. In some cases, employers who learn that an employee is pregnant will target the employee for termination by papering her personnel file and building a pretextual case against her. For example, employers will subject the pregnant employee to disciplinary action, negative performance reviews, or performance improvement plans. Employers will then use these adverse employment actions as the pretextual justification for the desired termination. In other cases, employers who learn that an employee is pregnant will not even bother to build a pretextual case against the pregnant employee. Instead, employers will simply fire the pregnant employee directly on the heels of learning of her pregnancy.

In this article, our wrongful termination attorneys in Citrus County, Florida explain how the decision in Konate v. Actalent, Inc.,2025 WL 289212 (D. N.J. Jan. 24, 2025) demonstrates that employees are protected from pregnancy discrimination after an employer learns of their pregnancy.

Protection From Pregnancy Discrimination

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (“PDA”), employers are prohibited from discriminating against women on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. After the passage of Title VII in 1964, employers argued for years that pregnancy discrimination was not an unlawful employment practice under Title VII because discrimination on the basis of pregnancy was not a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII. As many employer-friendly federal courts adopted this argument and ruled that pregnancy discrimination was not forbidden by Title VII, Congress was compelled to amend Title VII through passage of the PDA. The PDA’s amendment to Title VII expressly states that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII.

Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit

In Konate,a woman named Konate, brought an employment discrimination lawsuit against her former employers Actalent, Inc. (“Actalent”) and Distek, Inc. (“Distek”), pursuant to the PDA. Konate alleges that she was fired because of her pregnancy in violation of the PDA.

Konate became pregnant in August 2022. Konate alleges that in January 2023, Actalent, a recruiting agency and one of its recruiters, Albright, connected Konate with Distek for employment. Following both virtual and in-person interviews, Albright allegedly facilitated an employment contract between Actalent, Distek, and Konate. On February 6, 2023, when she was around six months pregnant, Konate began working at Distek as a validation specialist. Konate claims that at the start of her employment, her pregnancy was just beginning to show.

On February 21, 2023, Konate, in a common work area, allegedly told a co-worker that she was pregnant. On March 2, 2023, Konate left work early to attend a prenatal doctor’s appointment. Konate claims that she asked her supervisor, Burton, for permission to attend this appointment and that Burton gave her approval. On March 13, 2023, Albright informed Konate that she was being terminated due to “poor performance” and “calling out of work frequently. Konate contends that, at the time she was fired, her pregnancy was apparent to any observer.

Termination’s Suspicious Timing

Distek filed a motion with the trial court seeking dismissal of Konate’s pregnancy discrimination claim. In seeking dismissal, Distek argued that Konate had not alleged sufficient facts to show that Distek knew she was pregnant or that she was fired because of her pregnancy. The trial court disagreed and denied Distek’s motion for dismissal.

The trial court rejected Distek’s argument that Konate had not alleged sufficient facts to show that Distek knew she was pregnant. The trial court pointed out that, based on Konate’s allegations, “at least one person in a supervisory role at Distek, Burton, knew that [Konate] was pregnant because she sought permission from Burton to leave work early for a prenatal doctor’s appointment.” The trial court also pointed out that Konate “plausibly alleges that, because she was approximately seven-months pregnant, her pregnancy was evident to an observer.” In rejecting Distek’s argument that Konate had not alleged sufficient facts to show she was fired because of her pregnancy, the trial court focused on the suspicious timing between “Burton’s (and by extension, Distek’s) knowledge of [Konate’s] pregnancy” and Konate’s termination. The trial court concluded that the eleven-day passage of time from when Distek learned that Konate was pregnant when she sought permission from Burton to leave work early for a prenatal doctor’s appointment and Konate’s termination “permits the reasonable inference that [Konate] was terminated” because of her pregnancy in violation of the PDA.

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Citrus County Wrongful Discharge Lawyers

Based in Ocala, Florida and representing workers throughout Florida, our wrongful termination attorneys in Citrus County, Florida have fought for the rights of wrongful termination victims for more than twenty years. If you have been wrongfully terminated or have questions about your rights under federal employment law as a wrongful termination victim, please contact our office for a free consultation with our wrongful termination lawyers in Citrus County, Florida. Our employee rights law firm takes wrongful termination cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery, and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.