MOM’S DISCRIMINATION SUIT
Cynthia Papageorge claims she was fired because of her pregnancy. Her former employer? A maternity clothing retailer.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin soon in Papageorge’s discrimination suit against Mothers Work Inc., a Philadelphia-based company with more than 1,100 stores under the names Motherhood Maternity, A Pea in the Pod, Mimi Maternity and Destination Maternity.
Papageorge was approaching her due date in October 1999 when one of the company’s vice presidents, Frank Mullay, made a surprise inspection of four stores in Papageorge’s sales district. She claims Mullay questioned whether she was capable of doing her job in her “condition” and in her “state.” “He suggested that Ms. Papageorge’s pregnancy was interfering with her job performance,” her attorney, Mark Itzkowitz, wrote in a pre-trial memo.
Mullay also criticized the “housekeeping standards” in three of the four stores Papageorge supervised, and he questioned why she was taking big weekends off to attend childbirth classes, according to Itzkowitz.
Days later, Mullay allegedly directed Papageorge’s supervisor, Jan Dowe, to fire her. But Dowe refused, and the head of Mothers Work’s human resources department told Dowe that firing Papageorge would be illegal, according to Itzkowitz. However, Mullay allegedly told Dowe that “there are always ways of getting around” the law, Dowe claimed in an affidavit.
Papageorge, now 45, kept her job and, while on maternity leave, gave birth to her son on Nov. 24, 1999. She returned to work, but took a medical leave of absence in May 2000 after she injured her shoulder. The following month, the company fired her. In court papers, Mullay and Mothers Work deny that Papageorge’s pregnancy played any role in her firing. Instead, they say Papageorge’s shoulder injury wasn’t job-related and didn’t entitle her to medical leave or guarantee she could return to her job.
The company also says Mullay wasn’t involved in the decision to fire Papageorge. Her position was one of several eliminated in a corporate restructuring, the company says in court papers. “Papageorge has offered no proof whatsoever that either Mothers Work or Mr. Mullay acted in such an extreme and outrageous manner that it would shock the conscience of the community, nor has she offered any proof that she suffered severe emotional distress as a result of defendants’ conduct,” company attorney Michael F. Kraemer argued in past court papers.
Dowe also sued the company after she returned from maternity leave and was fired. Dowe claims she lost her job in part because she refused to fire Papageorge and other employees.