Cherry Hill Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyers

With ground-breaking streaming shows such as Orange is the New Black and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, all women-led shows, Netflix has been praised for offering a platform for women to tell their stories. However, Netflix may not prove as accommodating to women as it appears. A Netflix executive claims she was fired because of her pregnancy – but the company is denying her allegations.

Secret Retaliation Against Parental Leave

In the lawsuit, the woman claims her male boss began reducing her role at the company after she revealed her pregnancy to him. She did so because she was feeling tired and dealing with morning sickness, both common in early pregnancy. Her boss also began excluding her from meetings, removed her from email communications regarding projects, and made fun of her changing appearance, according to the lawsuit filed on April 2. The executive was removed from a project she was working on about the late Mexican-American singer Selena. When she informed her boss that she planned to take maternity leave, he became visibly annoyed. Later, when she asked for a transfer to a different department, she was terminated.

The lawsuit also states that while Netflix has a parental leave policy allowing new mothers and fathers to take up to a year off to care for their baby, there is “secret retaliation” by the company for anyone who actually takes long-term parental leave.

Notifying Human Resources

After putting up with her boss’ behavior for about a month, the woman reported the issue to Netflix’s human resources department. She specifically asked HR about changing departments, and was told she must speak with her boss. When she did speak to him, she says he began pressuring her to quit her job. She claims he said some sort of payment for her leaving could be worked out. When she said she did not want to quit and would like to move to a different department, he told her that was not possible.

The day following this conversation, she was called into HR and fired. She says no explanation was given for the firing, and when she said she believed she was wrongfully terminated because of her pregnancy, her remark was met with silence from HR staff. According to the executive, she was always given strong performance reviews by Netflix.

Deceptive Marketing

This is the executive’s third child. She claims she took the job with Netflix after “deceptive marketing” by the company, which touted its parental leave policy at her interview and its child care arrangements. The woman, her husband, and two small children made the move from New York to Los Angeles so she could take the Netflix job.