Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer for Washtenaw County
A pregnancy in Washtenaw County collides with a particular kind of workplace: a hospital unit at Michigan Medicine or Trinity Health, a grant-funded lab, an engineering team at Toyota’s research campus, a downtown kitchen. The announcement lands, and something changes.
The contract is “not renewed.” The exposure restriction becomes a leave of absence. The promotion cycle skips you. Whether that is a case depends on one thing: can the change be traced to the pregnancy through dates, documents, and how coworkers were treated? The evaluation is free, takes fifteen minutes, and termination cases are on contingency. The first deadline is the EEOC’s 300 days for the federal claims, and if your employer is the University of Michigan, which claims you can bring changes too. I’m Warren Astbury. I handle pregnancy discrimination cases for employees only, and I explain the university problem plainly below.
How pregnancy discrimination cases look in Washtenaw County
Washtenaw County has about 370,000 residents and one employer, the University of Michigan with Michigan Medicine, that employs more than 37,000 of them. The rest of the workforce is concentrated in a second health system, automotive research, a corporate headquarters or two, and a dense downtown of restaurants, shops, and software companies. Four patterns account for most of the pregnancy calls I get from this county.
The exposure restriction on a Michigan Medicine or Trinity unit
Nurses, residents, techs, and pharmacy staff at Michigan Medicine, Trinity Health Ann Arbor, and the IHA clinics carry the same pregnancy restrictions as hospital workers everywhere: limits on radiation, chemotherapy handling, certain infectious exposures, and heavy patient lifts. The difference in an academic medical center is the size of the alternative. With hundreds of units and clinics, a temporary rotation is nearly always possible, which makes “we have to put you on leave” very hard to defend under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The evidence is the OB’s exposure or lifting note, the transfer request, the response, and the rotations granted to coworkers with non-pregnancy restrictions.
The grant that “ran out” after the announcement
Postdocs, research scientists, lab managers, and study coordinators at U-M work on grant-funded appointments with end dates. A non-renewal looks like arithmetic: the funding ended. It stops looking that way when the grant was renewed and someone else was hired onto it, when the principal investigator’s emails about “lab productivity” started the week after the announcement, or when the appointment had been renewed four years running until the year you were pregnant. The evidence is the grant budget and period, the renewal history of your appointment, the posting for your replacement, and the PI’s messages before and after you told them.
The promotion cycle at Toyota, Forvia, and Domino’s
Toyota Motor North America’s R&D campus in York Township, Forvia in Saline, and Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor Township run annual review and promotion cycles. A pregnancy announced in the fall has a way of producing a “not this cycle” in the spring, a leave-time reassignment of the project that would have justified the promotion, and a return to a role a rung below where you left. The evidence is the promotion criteria, your reviews across cycles, who was promoted and from what pipeline, and the reassignment email.
Kitchens, retail floors, and downtown startups
Zingerman’s and the restaurant and retail businesses of downtown Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Saline, along with the small software companies above them, are where the schedule cases come from. Shifts shrink after the announcement. A “customer-facing” concern gets mentioned. A startup with eleven people decides it “can’t hold the role” through a leave. Many of these employers are under 15 employees, so Michigan’s ELCRA is the whole case, and it is enough. The evidence is the schedule history, the texts about shifts, and the headcount.
The law that applies
Every statute below reaches a Washtenaw County private employer of the right size. What is unusual here is how many people work for a public university, which changes the federal picture; that is handled in its own section.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2101) covers pregnancy as sex discrimination at employers with one or more employees, state institutions included. Three years to sue, no charge-filing step, and no cap on emotional-distress damages. For the eleven-person startup and the university alike, ELCRA is the load-bearing claim.
Title VII with the Pregnancy Discrimination Act applies at 15 employees, requires an EEOC charge within 300 days, and caps compensatory and punitive damages at $50K–$300K by employer size. Title VII does reach state employers for money damages, a point that matters for U-M workers.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective June 27, 2023, applies at 15 employees, imposes an affirmative duty to accommodate known pregnancy-related limitations absent undue hardship, and prohibits forcing leave when another accommodation would work. It also expressly covers lactation. Same 300-day EEOC charge.
The FMLA applies at 50 employees within 75 miles, and to public agencies regardless of size, for employees with 12 months and 1,250 hours. It protects maternity leave and restoration to an equivalent position; two years to sue, three if willful, no agency step. How a leave request itself becomes the trigger for discipline is laid out in fired after asking for FMLA leave.
The deadline trap for academic employees is the non-renewal notice. The 300 days run from when you are told the appointment will not be renewed, not from the date it actually ends, which can be months later. People wait for the last paycheck and lose the federal claims. ELCRA’s three years are more forgiving. All of the clocks are collected on the Michigan employment claim deadlines page.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA (MCL 37.2101) | Employers with one or more workers, public and private | Three years, direct to court | Past and future wages, emotional distress with no statutory limit, attorney fees |
| Title VII and the PDA | 15 or more employees, including state universities | 300 days to an EEOC charge, counted from the notice | Wages plus compensatory and punitive damages, capped $50K–$300K |
| Pregnant Workers Fairness Act | 15 or more employees | 300 days to an EEOC charge | Same as Title VII |
| FMLA | 50 or more within 75 miles, or any public agency; 12 months and 1,250 hours | Two years; three if willful | Lost pay and benefits doubled as liquidated damages, fees; money damages against the state limited (see below) |
Where your Washtenaw County pregnancy discrimination case gets filed
State claims against a private employer file in the Washtenaw County Trial Court, the 22nd Circuit, at 101 E. Huron Street in downtown Ann Arbor. Federal claims, and any state claims joined with them, go to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, whose main courthouse is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse in Detroit; the court also sits at 200 E. Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, but assignment is not by county. Claims against the university itself involve Michigan’s Court of Claims rules, which affect where the case is filed and how a jury demand is handled, and that gets sorted before anything is filed.
The Washtenaw jury pool is the most educated in Michigan, and pregnancy cases suit it. These jurors read a grant budget, follow a promotion rubric, and notice when a “business decision” was documented after the fact. Defense counsel know that, and it shows in their settlement posture. When the employer is private and the comparators are strong, an ELCRA-only complaint at 101 E. Huron keeps the case in front of that jury; when the forced-leave or lactation claim under the PWFA is the center of the case, the federal count is worth adding. The Washtenaw County employment lawyer page covers the 22nd Circuit and its juries in more detail, and the Ann Arbor employment lawyer page covers the city’s employers.
Suing the University of Michigan for pregnancy discrimination: what the Eleventh Amendment takes away and what it leaves
The University of Michigan is an arm of the State of Michigan, and the Eleventh Amendment bars private suits for money damages against a state in federal court unless Congress validly abrogated that immunity or the state consented. For U-M and Michigan Medicine employees, that sorts the claims into three groups.
Available for money damages: Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The Supreme Court held long ago that Title VII validly abrogates state immunity, so a U-M employee can pursue back pay and capped compensatory damages for pregnancy discrimination under federal law. ELCRA is also available, because it is state law and the state has made itself subject to it; the uncapped emotional-distress damages come from this claim.
Limited: the FMLA. The Court has held that states can be sued for money under the FMLA’s family-care provision but not its self-care provision. Leave to recover from childbirth is self-care; leave to care for and bond with a newborn falls on the family-care side. Where your maternity leave sits on that line is argued case by case, and injunctive relief, such as reinstatement, remains available under either provision.
Uncertain: the PWFA’s money-damages claim against the state itself. The statute borrows Title VII’s enforcement scheme, and whether its abrogation of state immunity holds up is a question courts are still working through. I plead the accommodation theory under ELCRA as well, which does not depend on the answer.
None of this applies to Trinity Health, IHA, Toyota, Domino’s, or any other private employer in the county; the full set of statutes applies to them without adjustment. And for VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System employees, who are federal workers, the process is different again: an EEO counselor contact within 45 days starts the claim, not an EEOC charge. The demotion-and-return pattern I see at the university and the health systems is the one described in demoted after announcing a pregnancy.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Export your records before your uniqname or badge is deactivated. The announcement email, the OB’s note, the transfer or accommodation request, the response, your reviews, the appointment or renewal letters, and any message from a supervisor or PI that mentions the pregnancy or the leave.
- Put the accommodation request in writing today. Restate to HR what limitation you have and what you asked for, so the PWFA request carries a date; if a pregnancy complication qualifies as a disability, the PWDCRA requires that written notice within 182 days of knowing you needed the accommodation.
- Request your personnel file under Bullard-Plawecki. For U-M employees that request goes to the university’s HR records office; for everyone else it goes to the employer, and in both cases the written request is what triggers the duty to produce.
- Save the funding and staffing evidence. The grant period, the lab roster before and after, the unit’s staffing grid, the promotion list: these are the documents that turn “the funding ended” or “we were short-staffed” into a comparison.
- Do not sign the separation or non-renewal agreement. Universities and hospitals both use them, and the release language covers every claim on this page, including the state-law claim that the Eleventh Amendment cannot touch.
- Keep working if you still have the job. Resigning from the smaller role or the changed schedule before getting advice converts the case into a constructive-discharge claim and ends the back-pay period.
Washtenaw County pregnancy discrimination questions
Can Michigan Medicine or Trinity Health Ann Arbor deny a pregnancy accommodation because of patient-care needs?
Only by proving undue hardship, which is a high bar for a large health system under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. A temporary rotation to a unit without radiation or chemotherapy exposure, a lift-team assist, or a schedule change is exactly what the statute contemplates, and an academic medical center has many units to rotate through. Ask in writing, keep the answer, and note who received similar rotations for other reasons.
My grant-funded research position at U-M wasn’t renewed after I announced my pregnancy. Is that pregnancy discrimination?
It can be, even though the appointment had an end date. Non-renewal is an adverse action when it is because of pregnancy. Signs that it was: the grant continued and someone else was hired on it, your appointment had been renewed repeatedly before, or the principal investigator’s tone changed after the announcement. The EEOC clock runs from the notice of non-renewal, not the last day of work.
Can I sue the University of Michigan for money damages for pregnancy discrimination?
Yes, under some statutes. Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act validly abrogate state sovereign immunity, so back pay and capped compensatory damages are available against U-M. Michigan’s ELCRA applies to the university and allows uncapped emotional-distress damages. The FMLA’s self-care provision does not allow money damages against a state, and the PWFA’s status is unsettled, so those theories are pleaded alongside ELCRA rather than alone.
I’m a resident or fellow at Michigan Medicine. Is my pregnancy protected the same way as a regular employee’s?
Yes. Residents and fellows are employees for purposes of Title VII, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and Michigan’s ELCRA, even though the position is also educational. The program must accommodate pregnancy-related limitations, cannot require leave when a schedule or rotation change would work, and cannot extend training, withhold a favorable evaluation, or decline to renew a contract because of pregnancy. Training-program procedures do not replace those rights.
Does lactation or pumping count under pregnancy discrimination law for Washtenaw County workers?
Yes. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act treats lactation as a related medical condition, so an employer with 15 or more employees must accommodate pumping breaks and a private space unless it proves undue hardship. The federal PUMP Act separately requires break time and a non-bathroom space for most employees for one year after birth. Under ELCRA, punishing a Washtenaw County employee for needing to pump is sex discrimination.
Talk to a pregnancy discrimination lawyer who takes Washtenaw County cases
If a pregnancy cost you an appointment, a rotation, a promotion, or a job anywhere in Washtenaw County, call (313) 701-2448 or request a free 15-minute case evaluation. If your employer is the university, say so first; the statute question changes the plan, not the answer to whether you have a case.
Warren Astbury, Harvard Law School J.D. 2009, fifteen years of employee-side practice, more than 50 trials to verdict, no employer clients. Pregnancy cases from the rest of Southeast Michigan are described on the pages for Wayne County, Oakland County, and Macomb County.