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The marketing director was on federal leave time when VCNY Home, a North Bergen-based manufacturer and importer of bedding, bath textiles and other home products, told her she couldn't take an additional 12 weeks allowed under state law to bond with and care for her newborn, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said.
VCNY contended that the time she was taking under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act actually ran concurrent with the time allowed under the New Jersey Family Leave Act, he said.
Not returning to work would be considered her resignation, Platkin said the company told her.
Under New Jersey law, an employee who uses FMLA leave time to recover from childbirth "doesn't exhaust the additional leave time available for bonding available under New Jersey’s Family Leave Act," the attorney general said Wednesday, March 9.
The marketing director complained to the state Division on Civil Rights, after which the company allowed her to use the state time, Platkin said.
When she returned to work, VCNY "deliberately excluded her from projects and meetings in which she had previously been involved," the executive told state authorities.
"She also claimed [that] VCNY retaliated against her by requiring her to take a two-week business trip to India and China," Platkin said. "When she declined to take the trip and requested an accommodation related to breastfeeding, she was fired."
The executive said she told the company that she couldn't go on the trip because she was breastfeeding but would assist and support the trip remotely, Platkin said.
VCNY offered to pay for her baby and a childcare provider to travel with her, he said, but she declined and "requested to be excused from the trip as an accommodation based on advice from her child’s pediatrician," he said.
She submitted a doctor's note explaining the specific need for her to stay close to her daughter due to the child's health and the exposure of “significant health risks” she'd face with international travel, the attorney general said.
VCNY responded by firing her for her “inability or unwillingness to perform an essential function of job," he said.
VCNY officials acknowledged reducing her role and excluding her from some meetings and events, which it said resulted from a marketing department “restructuring,” Platkin said.
“In New Jersey, we are committed to protecting the right of workers to have both a job and a family,” he said. “No one should be forced to choose between having children and earning a living."
In addition to the monetary payment to cover lost wages, emotional distress, and punitive damages, Platkin said the settlement requires VCNY to:
- ensure its employees are advised of their rights to accommodations related to breastfeeding and pregnancy:
- provide anti-discrimination training for all human resources employees, supervisors, managers and owners;
- review and revise its pregnancy leave and accommodation policies where necessary to comply with all relevant laws, including the Law Against Discrimination (LAD), New Jersey Family Leave Act and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which is part of the LAD;
- report to DCR annually for the next three years on any pregnancy-related leave requests it receives, as well as any pregnancy-related or breastfeeding-related accommodation requests, and any internal or public agency complaints filed by employees alleging pregnancy discrimination or failure to provide a reasonable accommodation.
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