Mom was officially fired for pumping at work
A young Paulding County mother claimed her employer discriminated against her by firing her because, among other things, she was breastfeeding. When she tried to take her former boss to court, she learned a hard lesson: It's legal for small businesses in Georgia.
ATLANTA – When her boss at the pizza restaurant fired her over a text message, Jaylee Morrison could hardly believe her eyes.
“I didn’t know you were breastfeeding,” the message read, “and we don’t have pumping breaks every 25 minutes when you’re the only waiter.”
Morrison had given birth to her son Asher eight months earlier and said she only asked for a five- to 10-minute break to pump.
Jaylee Morrison, a 21-year-old mother from Paulding County, lost her job as a waitress earlier this year, in part because she was breastfeeding. (FOX 5)
“I thought, this can’t be real,” the 21-year-old from Paulding County told the FOX 5 I-Team.
She also believed she had shut down the restaurant because of a lawsuit. But after hiring a lawyer and filing a federal discrimination lawsuit, she discovered she was out of luck. That's because Georgia has no pregnancy discrimination law. Although prohibited by federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not cover what happened to Morrison.
Amanda Farahany, an Atlanta employment lawyer, said the law should do more to protect new mothers in the workforce given Georgia's near abortion ban. (FOX 5)
“Georgia has no laws protecting workers,” said Atlanta employment lawyer Amanda Farahany, who did not represent Morrison but reviewed her case for the I-Team. “But notably, there are no laws to protect pregnant workers. There is the federal law to protect women employees, and the federal law only applies to companies with 15 or more employees.”
With Georgia's six-week abortion ban recently reinstated by the Georgia Supreme Court after a Fulton County judge struck it down, some lawmakers and women's rights activists say the state should do more to protect working mothers.
“If you want to encourage women to have children, you should at least allow them to work,” Farahany said.
A loophole in the law?
Georgia is one of three states, along with Mississippi and Alabama, without laws protecting pregnant women in the workplace.
That's something Farahany is trying to change. Earlier this year, she helped draft the Pregnancy Protection Act, a proposed law for Georgia that would allow women to sue for pregnancy discrimination, with a threshold of 10 employees.
Senator Brian Strickland, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced the bill in the Georgia Senate.
State Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February on the Pregnancy Protection Act. Employment lawyer Amanda Farahany (left) helped draft the bill.
“I’m proud to say I’m pro-life,” Strickland, R-McDonough, said during a hearing on the bill in February. “But it’s about more than just protecting the baby. I think that includes protecting the mother.”
Although it received bipartisan support, the bill failed to reach the Senate or House of Representatives and was passed at the end of the legislative session.
Strickland said some lawmakers had concerns about imposing regulations on businesses and wanted to see how the new federal protections would affect pregnant women.
However, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which went into effect last year, only applies to companies with 15 or more employees. And the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, which also went into effect last year, hasn't helped Morrison either, as it falls under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. So if a company can prove that it is causing undue hardship – for example because it only has one waitress per shift – employees will not be insured.
Strickland said he plans to reintroduce the Georgia bill in the next legislative session and will hold a hearing on it next month in a study committee he chairs on child care affordability.
“If we choose life as a state, we need the full support package,” Strickland told the I-Team.
Fired after one day
If the bill comes up again, Farahany said she may ask Morrison to testify at the state Capitol next year because she lost her job as a waitress.
Morrison told the I-Team that she only worked one shift at the pizzeria, her first time back at work since giving birth. In the text messages, her boss also mentioned that she had made a few requests for time off because of family issues, saying, “I think it's best if we just take this as a sign and then apologize.”
“I was angry, I was stressed, I was worried,” Morrison said. “And then it occurs to me, 'Oh, I need to look for another job because I need the money now.'”
Jaylee Morrison's second child, Asher, was 8 months old when a pizzeria fired Morrison because she needed breaks to express breast milk.
So she hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a necessary step in pursuing a discrimination claim. But all that came to an end when an EEOC investigator sent her attorney an email saying her former boss had submitted “additional documentation supporting her claim that she had understaffed employees over a four-quarter period and the Commission does not do so.”
“I think they had about 10 to 12 employees,” Morrison said.
Her ex-boss declined to speak to the I-Team but said in an emailed statement: “We deny any allegations that we violated any laws or acted in any way harmful to this former employee. We comply with all applicable laws.” and wish her all the best for her future.
Asked if the pizza restaurant did something wrong, Farahany said: “Of course this employer did something wrong. But the employer will not be held responsible because that employer has too few employees to be covered by federal law.”
Jaylee Morrison told the FOX 5 I-Team that she thought she had a strong case against the restaurant citing breastfeeding when she fired her in June, until she found out she had no case. (FOX 5)
“This is a woman who just had a child. She is trying to provide for herself and her family,” the lawyer said. “The fact that we don’t have laws in Georgia that make this illegal is astounding to me.”
“It was completely different”
If passed by the Legislature, the Pregnancy Protection Act would allow women to sue in superior and state courts rather than relying on federal courts. Georgia federal judges follow the precedent of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and are known for dismissing many discrimination cases before they even reach a jury.
Farahany says moving cases to local courts would even help women who work for larger companies, such as a client of her firm who is suing RaceTrac.
Amie Loudermilk, 24, accused the Atlanta-based company of cutting her paychecks after she told a manager at a Cherokee County gas station that she was pregnant and asked for a lighter workload.
Amie Loudermilk, 24, says a RaceTrac gas station wanted her “out the door” after she asked for a lighter workload during her pregnancy. (FOX 5)
Her federal complaint says the company removed her from the roster and placed her on unpaid sick leave.
“From the day I told them I was pregnant, it was completely different,” she said.
The company has denied her allegations in court documents and declined to comment to FOX 5.
Amie Loudermilk's federal lawsuit says she hasn't worked at this RaceTrac gas station in Cherokee County since March 2023 and accuses the company of putting her on unpaid sick leave because of her pregnancy. (FOX 5)
“While we cannot comment on pending litigation, RaceTrac takes such claims seriously and we are committed to addressing them,” the statement said. “We are proud to be a values-driven employer that promotes a supportive and inclusive workplace for all employees.”
