Kaiser Fired Woman for Having a Baby, She Says

3-12-2013 14:28:00

LOS ANGELES (CN) – Supervisors at a Kaiser hospital harassed a woman and eventually fired her because she took time to pump breast milk for her newborn baby at work and attempted to take time off to bond with it, the woman says in Superior Court.

Danais Mahabir worked at a Pasadena Kaiser hospital as an intermediate clerk, but was transferred to Kaiser’s West Los Angeles location in 2010 “because plaintiff’s pregnancy prevented her from lifting.” Mahabir began working as a staffing clerk in the Centralized Time Keeping Department where she was supervised by co-defendants Felicia Singleton-Billingsley and Kathleen Kelly-Borisoff.

She ultimately took time off to have her baby. During that time she was called by Singleton-Billingsley and told she would be getting a 13 percent raise upon her early return. Mahabir returned to work two days early after taking an additional two weeks to be with her baby. She never got the raise and over the course of the next year says she was repeatedly harassed about her breast milk pumping and was denied “baby bonding” time owed her under law.

She alleges she was also told by Singleton-Billingsley that “all baby bonding requests will be denied,” that “if you get pregnant again, I will fire you!” and “You can’t have anymore kids while you work for me, try me.”

Mahabir continued to be called out for petty errors following a disability leave, was put on an action plan and denied employment opportunities at Kaiser and other facilities based on pre-employment discussions between potential employers and Singleton-Billingsley about her past employment. She was ultimately fired in October of 2012.

Mahabir is suing for sex and disability discrimination, based on a pregnancy-related condition, failure to accommodate, harassment, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, and wrongful termination and defamation.

She seeks general, special and punitive damages.

Gabriel H. Avina represents the plaintiff.