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Pregnant woman sues PR firm, alleges discrimination after dismissal

Tiffany Jackson filed a lawsuit against her former employer, CMW Media, for alleged sexual discrimination. (Photo: Courtesy of Tiffany Jackson) (Courtesy of Tiffany Jackson)

A San Diego woman says she was fired from her job as an account manager at a PR firm less than two hours after telling her boss that she was pregnant.

Tiffany Jackson, 38, filed a lawsuit against her former employer, CMW Media, on Tuesday, alleging that she faced sexual discrimination.

She said her termination is symptomatic of a larger pattern of discrimination against pregnant women, but CMW Media reportedly said that she was dismissed because of the allegedly lackluster quality of her work.

“I feel very much discriminated against because I didn’t deserve to be fired from that job,” Jackson said in an interview with Yahoo News.

CMW Media, a public relations firm that represents medical marijuana companies, hired Jackson in October for a 90-day probationary period. Her official start date was November 9, 2015.

One day after that period ended, shortly before noon, she informed her boss that she was expecting a baby girl.

“The first words out of his mouth were ‘Oh, is this a good thing?’” she told Yahoo. “I looked at him and said, ‘Are you kidding me? It’s a great thing. I’m ecstatic about it.’”

According to Jackson, the boss reminded her that he told her when she started the job that CMW Media was a “fast-moving train” and that, if hired, she would need to “jump on board.”

About 1:15 p.m., she said, her boss called her back into his office and fired her. He told her that her job performance during the probationary period had been unsatisfactory, she said.

“I was sitting there thinking, I can’t believe this, this can’t be happening,” she said. “This is the first time I’m hearing that you are not happy with my performance. I never heard it.”

Tiffany Jackson says that she was fired from her job within two hours of telling her boss that she was pregnant. (Photo: Courtesy of Tiffany Jackson)
Tiffany Jackson says that she was fired from her job within two hours of telling her boss that she was pregnant. (Photo: Courtesy of Tiffany Jackson)

Jackson said that she had thus far only received positive feedback — verbally and via text and email — and had enjoyed being part of the firm’s small, close-knit staff. Her boss, she said, claimed to take responsibility for not previously mentioning her allegedly poor job performance.

According to the lawsuit, the boss told Jackson she was “not up to speed” and “not a good fit.”

Jackson said she was handed an unemployment handbook and her last check and told to collect her belongings.

When contacted by Yahoo News, a CMW Media representative replied, "We have no comment on this story at this time."

Local ABC-affiliate KGTV, where Jackson once worked as an associate producer, was first to report on the lawsuit. The local station received a statement from CMW Media.

"Ms. Jackson was terminated based solely upon job performance prior to the expiration of her 90-day probation period with the company," the statement reads in part. "The decision to terminate her was documented by management several days prior to the time she informed the company about her alleged pregnancy."

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to outlaw pregnancy-based sex discrimination. Under federal and California state law, companies can still fire pregnant employees legally but not because of the pregnancy.

There have been many cases over the years where pregnant women have alleged wrongful termination against their employers. Just this week, a woman in Minnesota filed a complaint with the state’s department of human rights, saying she was fired because she was pregnant.

San Diego-based lawyer Dan Gilleon, who is representing Jackson, said that the facts speak for themselves.

“This is a classic case of pregnancy discrimination where an employer fires a vulnerable woman in what was supposed to be one of the happier times of her life, all because the employer doesn't want its bottom line affected,” Gilleon said to Yahoo News. “A jury here in San Diego recently hit Auto Zone for $185,000,000 in a similarly egregious case.”

The lawsuit also lists General Hemp and Medical Marijuana as defendants. CMW Media represents the former and provides services for the latter, according to the lawsuit.

Jackson reflected that pregnancy is supposed to be among the best phases of a woman’s life, but that the financial instability she is now facing has created unnecessary strain.

“Some women are afraid to speak up or fight back,” she said. “I’m not going to put up with this. I don’t want this company to be able to get away with this and do this to another woman.”