A Pregnant Worker, Forced to Go on Unpaid Leave, Is Back on the Job

As readers of “The Working Life” column know, Floralba Fernandez Espinal was forced out of her job at a thrift store in the Bronx last month because she was pregnant and could no longer do heavy lifting.

Now, thanks to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect in January, after nearly two months without work, Ms. Fernandez is back on the job and rejoicing over her victory.

The law requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers, so long as those accommodations don’t cause undue hardship for the employer; Ms. Fernandez’s case was one of the first tests of the law. After several rounds of negotiations with her union representatives and lawyers, the thrift store’s management agreed to reinstate Ms. Fernandez in a light-duty capacity, which was what her obstetrician had ordered. This week, she has been pricing and hanging clothing instead of hauling heavy piles of clothing from the storeroom to the showroom as she was required to do in the past. Her employer, Unique Thrift, is a national chain of thrift shops with a store in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

Unique Thrift also agreed to give Ms. Fernandez $1,088 in back pay, to maintain her level of seniority at the company and to comply with all of the requirements of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, her lawyers said.

Ms. Fernandez, who earns $8 an hour and has worked at Unique Thrift for about two years, desperately needs the back pay, her union representatives said. During her time out of work, she struggled to pay her bills. Ms. Fernandez, who is 22 and four and a half months pregnant, had to borrow money from her family to buy groceries, and her boyfriend, a livery taxi driver, worked double shifts to help pay rent and utilities.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represented Ms. Fernandez, praised her for “the courage to pursue her rights.”

Dina Bakst, co-president of a Better Balance, a legal advocacy group, represented Ms. Fernandez along with Larry Cary in the negotiations with Unique Thrift. She said she hoped that Ms. Fernandez’s victory “will give other pregnant women in New York City, especially those in low wage and physically demanding jobs, the courage to stand up for what they need to stay healthy and on the job.”

In a statement, Unique Thrift’s management declined to discuss the specifics of Ms. Fernandez’s case, but said the company “has had, and will continue to have, many pregnant employees on its active work force.”