April 17 (Bloomberg) — Florida's law protecting women against workplace discrimination also covers those who are pregnant, the state's supreme court said in overturning a trial court ruling.
Reinstating a lawsuit filed by a former worker at a property management company, the appeals court said pregnancy is "a natural condition and primary characteristic unique to the female sex," and covered by Florida's civil rights act.
Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is prohibited under federal law. Some states including California, Illinois and New York, also have laws guarding against pregnancy discrimination, either through explicit statutes or by way of legal findings, according to women's advocacy group Legal Momentum.
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Peguy Delva, a former front desk manager for Continental Group Inc., claimed the Hollywood, Florida- based property manager placed her under heightened scrutiny and refused to let her change shifts after she revealed she was pregnant. The company also didn't let her return to work after maternity leave, Delva claimed.
A trial court dismissed the suit saying although "there was no doubt as to the sufficiency of the allegation that the plaintiff was discriminated against," the law doesn't explicitly protect pregnancy.
Continental changed its name in June to FirstService Residential.
In a sole dissenting opinion on the seven-member appeals panel, Chief Justice Ricky Polston wrote today the "plain meaning" of the statute didn't encompass pregnancy.
"On its face, the term 'sex' does not refer to whether one is pregnant or not pregnant even though that status is biologically confined to one gender," he wrote.
The case is Delva v. The Continental Group Inc., SC12-2315, Supreme Court of Florida.
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