Swedish woman denied job after miscarriage
Published: 22 Jan 11 13:44 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/31582/20110122/
A farmer in southern Sweden who refused to employ a woman after she informed him she had had a miscarriage has been found guilty of discrimination and violating Swedish parental leave laws.
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Throughout her time on the farm, she expressed her desire to continue as a full-time employee. But when she told the farmer she had suffered a miscarriage in May 2009, her employee terminated her traineeship.
In subsequent conversations, which the woman had recorded, the farmer explained he didn’t want to hire someone who wanted to have children because of the complications and expense involved in finding a replacement during parental leave.
The woman took her case to Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen – DO), which represented her in a hearing before the Swedish Labour Court (Arbetsdomstolen – AD).
On Wednesday, the court found the farmer guilty of breaking Sweden’s discrimination laws as well as the country’s parental leave laws and ordered him to pay the woman 30,000 kronor ($4,500) in compensation.
“Many woman run into difficulties in their career when they become pregnant or plan on taking parental leave, especially when it comes to getting or holding onto one’s job,” ombudsman Katri Linna said in a statement.
“It’s often young women with uncertain employment conditions who lose their job. That causes serious consequences for the future of their career.”
During the proceedings, the employment officer who assigned the woman to work on the farm said he would have never offered her the traineeship if he had known she was pregnant.
As a result of the man’s statement, the woman has also reported the National Employment Office to the Equality Ombudsman for discrimination.
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Last year when the story came out DO was demanding 160k. Wonder how he got the sum dropped so much?
Source. aftonbladet.se/wendela/article7846423.ab
She did end up getting having a daughter (Matilda) In April 2010.
So, that would place her getting preggers about July 2009.
So, had she been awarded the permanent position with the dairy farm which was due to start June 16th, she would have been pregnant about a month after getting the job.
If anyone does not like that, they should leave Europe and move to somewhere were there mindset will match the local culture, such as Afghanistan, USA or Somalia.
I don't get it. She said she had had a miscarriage. Why did the boss automatically think she needed to be fired?
Sorry to dissapoint you, but it's in fact NOT legal to fire someone in the states because they're pregnant or become pregnant. The only exception to this is if it's a very small company, 15 employees or less. That part sucks and shouldn't be there but it's a very low percentage of employeers that fit into that catagory.
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-preg.html
That's the link.
As a side, even if you don't agree with / like a country or all of their policies, (I don't agree with many of the current policies either) jumping to conclusions and / or making off the wall statements doesn't make you look much better.
Just my two cents.
You should be a politician.
It is illegal, unless it is not....insert caveat.....classic.