Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer for Wayne County
You told your manager you were pregnant. Then the schedule changed, the write-ups started, or the lifting restriction from your OB turned into “we don’t have anything for you.”
Now you are out of a job in Wayne County and wondering whether any of that was legal. Here is the one-sentence test: if the timing ties the pregnancy to the firing, and a coworker who wasn’t pregnant got the treatment you were denied, you probably have a case. Finding out costs nothing: a free 15-minute call, and termination cases are handled on contingency. The deadline that bites first is the EEOC’s 300-day window for the federal claims; Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Act gives you three years. I’m Warren Astbury, and pregnancy discrimination cases from Detroit and its suburbs are a large part of what I do, for employees only.
How pregnancy discrimination cases look in Wayne County
Wayne County’s workforce is heavier on hospitals, plants, and public payrolls than anywhere else in Michigan, and each setting produces its own version of the pregnancy case.
The lifting restriction on a hospital unit
Henry Ford Health, the Detroit Medical Center, Corewell Health Dearborn, and Trinity Health Livonia employ thousands of nurses, techs, and aides. When an OB writes a 20- or 25-pound lifting limit, the unit manager often reads it as “cannot perform the essential functions” and hands over a leave form. Meanwhile the tech who tore a rotator cuff moving a patient last spring is working light duty at the desk. That coworker is your comparator, and the comparison is the case. The evidence is the OB note, the date you handed it in, the hospital’s light-duty policy, and the names of coworkers who received modified work.
Attendance points on the line
Ford’s Rouge Complex and Michigan Assembly, the Stellantis Detroit Assembly Complex on the east side, and GM’s Factory ZERO in Detroit-Hamtramck all run on attendance systems. Prenatal appointments and morning sickness each cost a point, and the points add up to a discharge that looks neutral on paper. It is not neutral if the supervisor knew the absences were pregnancy-related and nobody offered the schedule flexibility the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires. The evidence is your attendance printout laid against your appointment dates, the text telling the supervisor why you would be out, and coworkers with the same points who kept their jobs.
Ramp, cabin, and screening work at DTW
Detroit Metro in Romulus employs thousands through airlines, ground-handling contractors, cabin cleaners, and caterers. A pregnant ramp agent who asks to come off baggage duty is told the contractor “has no light duty,” and her hours dry up. The first problem in these cases is figuring out which of several stacked companies is legally your employer. The second is the evidence: your written request, the response, the schedules before and after, and whatever shows who controlled your assignments.
The realignment while you’re on leave
Downtown, at Rocket Companies, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the City of Detroit, Wayne County government, and Wayne State University, the pattern is quieter. While you are on leave your accounts are “redistributed,” your team is “realigned,” and you return to a smaller title with no direct reports. The FMLA promised you the same or an equivalent job. The evidence is the org chart before and after, the announcement email, and every message about the transition plan. I wrote about how these cases develop in demoted after announcing a pregnancy.
The law that applies
Four statutes overlap in a Wayne County pregnancy case, and they reach different employers.
Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (MCL 37.2101) treats pregnancy discrimination as sex discrimination at any employer with one or more employees: three years to sue, no agency filing, no cap on emotional-distress damages. For the dental office in Canton or the ten-person contractor at the airport, it may be the only statute that reaches your employer.
Title VII, through the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, starts at 15 employees and requires an EEOC charge within 300 days at the Detroit Field Office; compensatory and punitive damages are capped at $50K–$300K by employer size. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in force since June 27, 2023, uses the same threshold and the same charge, and adds what ELCRA never spelled out: an affirmative duty to accommodate known pregnancy-related limitations unless the employer proves undue hardship, and a bar on pushing you onto leave when another accommodation would work.
The FMLA covers employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, for workers with 12 months and 1,250 hours, and protects both the leave and your right to return. See fired after asking for FMLA leave for how the leave claim and the pregnancy claim fit together.
The trap is the 300 days. Wayne County workers call me at month eleven still assuming they have “a few years.” They do under ELCRA, not under the federal statutes. Every clock is on the Michigan employment claim deadlines page.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELCRA (Michigan) | Any employer with at least one employee | Three years, filed straight in circuit court | Back pay, front pay, emotional distress with no cap, attorney fees |
| Title VII / Pregnancy Discrimination Act | 15 or more employees | EEOC charge inside 300 days, then suit | Back pay; compensatory and punitive capped at $50K–$300K |
| Pregnant Workers Fairness Act | 15 or more employees | EEOC charge inside 300 days, then suit | Tracks Title VII remedies |
| FMLA | 50+ employees within 75 miles; you worked 12 months and 1,250 hours | Two years; three if willful | Lost pay and benefits, doubled as liquidated damages, attorney fees |
Where your Wayne County pregnancy discrimination case gets filed
An ELCRA-only case files in the Wayne County Circuit Court at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, before a jury drawn from Detroit, the Downriver cities, and the western suburbs. Add a Title VII, PWFA, or FMLA count and the employer can remove the case a few blocks west to the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse at 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard, the seat of the Eastern District of Michigan, where summary judgment comes faster and the federal damages caps apply.
For pregnancy cases that choice is sharper than usual. ELCRA brings the uncapped emotional-distress claim and no agency step; the PWFA brings an accommodation duty the state statute does not spell out; the FMLA brings liquidated damages. Sometimes I plead only state law and keep the case at 2 Woodward, and sometimes the federal hook is worth the trade. The Wayne County employment lawyer page covers the jury pool and venue.
Where in the county you worked does not change the courthouse. A nurse from Dearborn, a transmission-plant worker from Livonia, and a claims analyst from Detroit all file in the same two buildings.
Hospital light-duty policies: the comparator problem
Every large Wayne County hospital system has a written transitional-duty policy. Many were drafted with workers’ compensation in mind and say, in effect, that light duty exists for injuries sustained on the job. A pregnant nurse with a lifting restriction is then told she does not qualify, and her only option is leave.
That policy language is not a defense; it is evidence. Under Title VII, the Supreme Court held in Young v. UPS that accommodating a large class of non-pregnant workers while refusing pregnant workers with the same restriction supports an inference of discrimination. Under the PWFA, a system that finds desk work for an injured tech will struggle to prove desk work is an undue hardship when a pregnant tech asks. Under ELCRA, treating the pregnant employee worse than the injured one is sex discrimination with a three-year clock. What I need from you is the policy, your restriction note and the date you submitted it, the response, and the names or roles of coworkers placed on transitional duty. Discovery will produce the list; your job right now is to remember who was on it.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Forward yourself the paper trail tonight. The announcement email, the OB restriction note, HR’s reply, your reviews, your attendance record, and the termination letter, to a personal account before your badge stops working.
- Put the accommodation request in writing if it was verbal. Email HR restating what you asked for and when; if a pregnancy complication rises to the level of a disability, Michigan’s PWDCRA separately requires written notice within 182 days.
- Request your personnel file. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act obligates the employer to produce it on written request.
- Leave the severance unsigned. It releases every claim described on this page, and the review window is long enough to get advice first.
- Write down your comparators. The coworker on light duty after a knee surgery, the one whose points were excused, the person who now holds your title, with names and dates.
- Do not resign to end the stress. A resignation turns a termination case into a harder constructive-discharge case and can cost you unemployment benefits.
Wayne County pregnancy discrimination questions
Can a Wayne County hospital deny me light duty for a pregnancy restriction when it gives light duty to employees hurt on the job?
Not lawfully. Under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act the hospital must accommodate a known pregnancy-related limitation unless it proves undue hardship, and a transitional-duty program that already exists for injured staff makes that proof very difficult. Under Title VII and ELCRA, accommodating injured workers while refusing pregnant workers with the same restriction is evidence of sex discrimination.
I was fired from a Detroit-area plant for attendance points from prenatal appointments. Is that pregnancy discrimination?
It can be. A points system is neutral only if it is applied neutrally. If your supervisor knew the absences were prenatal appointments or pregnancy sickness and assessed points anyway without offering schedule flexibility, that is a PWFA accommodation failure and evidence of discrimination under ELCRA and Title VII. If you were FMLA-eligible, those absences may have been protected leave.
My employer put me on unpaid leave instead of accommodating my pregnancy restriction. Is that legal?
Usually not, if the employer has 15 or more employees. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act specifically prohibits forcing an employee onto leave when another reasonable accommodation would let her keep working. An employer that sends you home rather than modifying lifting or offering a temporary reassignment has to prove every alternative was an undue hardship. Document the date and what you asked for instead.
I hadn’t worked a year yet, so I wasn’t FMLA-eligible. Can my Wayne County employer fire me for pregnancy-related absences?
The FMLA does not protect you, but two other laws do. The PWFA requires employers with 15 or more employees to accommodate pregnancy-related limitations, and time off for appointments or recovery can be a required accommodation regardless of tenure. ELCRA prohibits firing anyone because of pregnancy, covers employers of any size, and has no service requirement.
I work at DTW for a ground-handling contractor. Who do I bring a pregnancy claim against when there are layers of contractors?
Potentially more than one company. Airport ground work often involves an airline, a prime contractor, and a subcontractor that signs your check, and a company that controls your schedule, assignments, and discipline can be liable as a joint employer even if it did not hire you. Keep your schedules, badge records, and the name of whoever refused your request.
Talk to a pregnancy discrimination lawyer who takes Wayne County cases
If you lost a job at a Wayne County hospital, plant, airport, office, or public agency after a pregnancy, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. I will tell you whether the timing and the comparators add up to a case and which deadline is closest.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. Fifteen years in practice, more than 50 cases tried to verdict, never an employer client. Working in another county? See the pregnancy discrimination pages for Oakland County, Macomb County, and Washtenaw County.