Hey, I’m kind of new to this sub and I need some advice.
I’ll be 39 weeks pregnant tomorrow and my doctor and I had discussed inducing me this Thursday. I let my boss know this morning that I plan on using my maternity leave early, starting today because of my upcoming induction. I’m not sure if it matters but at my company maternity leave is unpaid and I have been working there for a little over a year.
I was told by my boss that since it’s last minute and not the date we had originally planned for (May 12th) that I couldn’t do so until tomorrow because “our team” really needs help. I argued back and asked what the big deal was because if my water were to break today it would be the same thing, last minute. My boss couldn’t give me a real answer besides, “yeah but your water hasn’t broken yet so it’s not the same thing.”
I have been training 3 people since April 11th on how to do my job so they can take over once I’m on leave. They have all done very well in training so my boss and I agreed that they would fully take over my responsibilities on April 18th. Ever since April 18th I have had nothing to do at work.
I cannot afford to quit at the moment but if this is illegal I want to hire a lawyer and sue them. This is not the first time they have been insensitive to me and I’m starting to get furious on how I’ve been treated.
So my question is, is this illegal for them to do? I’m not well versed in workers rights but I feel like this is or should at least be illegal. The company I work for is very small, we have 49 employees including me. I’m not sure if this is relevant but I work in the state of Kentucky.
Side note: The company is family owned, so even if I wanted to go to HR, I can’t because the rep is also a close family member. Not that it matters anyway since HR just looks out for the company and doesn’t have my best interest in mind. There is a history of people reporting things to HR and getting fired a couple days later for “unrelated” things.