Marysville woman claims pregnancy lead to firing from restaurant job
MARYSVILLE, Wash. (KOMO) - A Marysville woman claims she was fired from a Jersey Mike’s restaurant because she is pregnant and has the text messages to prove it.
Kameisha Denton, 19, showed KOMO News a series of texts, including one she says she received from the store manager Tuesday evening.
The text reads, “Hello I am sorry to inform you but it’s not going to workout with Jersey Mikes. It’s not a good time for us to have someone who is leaving for maternity leave in several months anyways. You also failed to tell me this during our interview. Good luck to.”
The store owner, Tim Trieb, told KOMO News he is aware of the texts, and says the manager resigned Wednesday morning because of the incident.
Trieb called Kameisha Wednesday morning, apologized for the situation and offered her the job back.
“But I told him I wasn’t interested,” she said. “Just because, I feel like that’s just a way for me to hush with the situation, and it’s wrong.”
Kameisha took the job last week, but didn’t mention her pregnancy in the interview. She says she accepted the job, and texted the manager that evening to explain the situation.
“I am four months pregnant and I was afraid to mention it because I have had a lot of interviews and once I mentioned I was pregnant they decided not to hire me,” she wrote in the text.
“I need this job so that I can care and provide for my baby. I promise this will not interfere with my performance at work. I also plan on coming back to work four weeks after the birth of my baby. He is due the end of December. Thank you for this opportunity and I promise to be a great candidate for this job. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Kameisha says she completed three days of work, but noticed she wasn’t on the schedule moving forward. She texted her manager again, and last night she received the text firing her.
“I’m capable of working, I’m a good candidate,” she said, “It’s discrimination. You aren’t supposed to do that.”
Attorney Reba Weiss agreed. She is not connected with the case but has 25 years of experience in employment law.
“First of all, she doesn’t have to tell him during any interview that she’s pregnant,” Weiss said. “Secondly, it’s blatantly illegal to terminate a woman because she’s pregnant or she’s going to go on maternity leave.”
Weiss called this blatant “pregnancy discrimination.”
The Jersey Mike’s store owner said in a statement that he has “zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind,” and added that their management team will undergo immediate addition training.
KOMO News tried to reach out to the manager accused of sending those texts but couldn’t connect as of Wednesday afternoon.
