What can I do now?

[TToby]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

I recently quit my job becasue my boss was verbally abusive and was making inappropriate comments about my pregnancy.

He told me the week before I quit that I wouldn't be allowed to return to work after I delivered my baby because "kids get sick and I won't rely on anyone with kids". The Family Leave Act doesn't apply to his company because there are only 5 employees.

Anyway, I worked for this jerk for 2 years. After 2 years of his yelling for no reason and a few months of comments like, "you can't even reach the desk because you are so big" (from being pregnant - and Yes, I could reach just fine), I finally walked out on him.

I filed for unemployment based on harassment. He of course, said that that never happend and I've been denied unemployment because I have no witness. My question is: What can I do now? I really want some revenge in a legal fashion. Any ideas?

 

[cbg]

Yes, he sounds like a piece of work all right. Problem is, the company is so small it flies below the radar of pretty much all Federal laws; the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Title VII and so on, all require 15 or more employees before the employers are subject to them. So there's really nowhere to go with this at the Federal level.

The ONLY thing I can think of, and it's a long shot, would be that some states have a lower standard for their own discrimination laws; in other words, instead of requiring 15 employees, they only require 8, or 10, or 6. IF your state does that and IF a company with 5 employees is required to follow state discrimination laws, then you could file a claim with the Illinois Department of Human Rights. That's about the only way you're going to get any legal revenge.

 

[TToby]

Thanks for your help CBG. I wasn't able to find that IL has laws for under 15 employees. It just seems to me that there should be something employees of very small companies can do when they're being mistreated. I worked with his useless daughters who came and went as they pleased and got paid for all these hours that they didn't work. They came in 30 minutes to 2 hours late (getting paid for the time they should have shown up) and never got reprimanded. If I was 5 minutes late, there was hell to pay. I just want revenge and I don't mean monetary - I just want him to sit in the hot seat for a while. Any idea who I could write to to get these laws changed? I mean, who's looking out for the little guy?

 

[cbg]

You can always contact your state, local and Federal representatives to lobby for changes in the laws.