Worker Says She Was Fired for Being Pregnant

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A medical administrator claims in court that her bosses used trumped-up charges to fire her after she became pregnant.

Nancy Semaan sued Healthcare Partners, of Glendale, and DaVita Healthcare Partners, on Nov. 21 in Superior Court.

She claims that during her eight years at the company she had a "spotless" record and was a model employee.

That all changed, she says, when she informed her bosses in the summer that she was pregnant with her first child and planned on taking maternity leave.

"Less than four weeks after defendants became aware that plaintiff was pregnant, they launched a witch-hunt that plaintiff is informed and believes was initiated with the sole purpose of drumming up a pretextual excuse for terminating her employment," the 9-page lawsuit states.

On Sept. 9, Semaan says, human resources began to investigate her for supposed "favoritism." The probe crumbled, she claims, when the company failed to turn up any evidence.

Her bosses then falsely accused her of illegally accessing another employee's medical records, though she says a doctor had asked her to change a return-to-work order on the record while the worker was on medical leave.

"Plaintiff's compliance with this order was later used by defendants as support for their pretextual claims that plaintiff had acted improperly and/or unlawfully," the complaint states, adding that the doctor was allowed to keep his job.

Semaan seeks lost wages and punitive damages for pregnancy discrimination and wrongful firing.

She is represented by Gregory Wong of Adept Employment Law.

Healthcare Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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