Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990 TAG: 9007150168
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FALLS CHURCH LENGTH: Medium
One of the women, Jody Nicol, said her husband, Scott Nicol, also was fired last winter when their superiors at ImageMatrix Inc. of Falls Church learned of her pregnancy.
"We lost all our life savings. It was just devastating," she said.
Jody Nicol said one of her bosses suggested she would no longer be able to work 70-hour weeks in her job as a vice president. The couple said Scott Nicol, also a vice president, was told by company executives they would feel uncomfortable working with him when they had just fired his wife.
"It's been so hard to rebuild our lives," Jody Nicol said. "My job always came first. You'd think that would take care of you and protect you, but it doesn't."
Federal, state and county laws prohibit firing an employee because of pregnancy. In addition to the complaints the three women filed with the Fairfax County commission, the Nicols also have complained to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Both Nicol and a second woman who asked not to be identified said they were told they were being fired because ImageMatrix had money problems.
The third woman who filed a complaint could not be reached for comment.
Michael Eggleston, president of ImageMatrix, denied that any workers at his company have been let go because they were pregnant.
"ImageMatrix currently employs and will continue to employ persons who can perform the quality work necessary to maintain our high standards of excellence and work ethics," Eggleston said in a letter to The Washington Post.
Eggleston said his company operates "under the spirit and well-defined regulations of the national, state and local equal employment opportunity directives. This clearly includes non-discrimination of race, handicap condition, religious beliefs, sex and, most certainly, state of health."
The Nicols, who had a combined annual salary of $150,000, have sold most of their furniture and are trying to sell their $372,000 house in Fairfax County. Scott Nicol, 33, has a new job that pays $35,000 a year at another communications company and paints portraits and landscapes in his spare time. Jody Nicol, 37, got her real estate license last winter, but said she has yet to earn a sales commission.
Credit-card bills from the couple's more free-spending days remain unpaid, they said, and Jody Nicol takes their month-old son, Austin, with her when she shows houses because she said she cannot afford a baby sitter.
"We've already been talking to attorneys about bankruptcy," she said. "It's been a big struggle through what should have been to me the highlight of my life."
The other woman said she was fired two weeks after informing her bosses of her pregnancy. The woman said she was called to a superior's office one day after lunch and told to clear out her desk.
"I really needed the money at that time," she said, because her husband was starting his own company. "I lost my job and my benefits and I'm pregnant."
by CNB