Maternity Store Facing Charges for Firing Pregnant Woman

A story hit the wire about a maternity chain that may be guilty of discriminating against a pregnant woman. US District Court in Boston began jury selection today in the case of discrimination in which Cynthia Papageorge is suing Mothers Work Inc. Papageorge looks to collect compensation for damages incurred in the form of emotional distress and lost wages after she was fired after May 2000. Mothers Work Inc. operates a number of maternity stores including a Pea in the Pod, one of Bostonist’s favorite places to get ideas about what to buy expecting mothers while window-shopping on Newbury St and then buy them cheaper online. The AP reports on the literal "he said, she said" battle:

Papageorge was approaching her due date in October 1999 when one of the company's vice presidents, Frank Mullay, made a surprise inspection of four stores in Papageorge's sales district. She claims Mullay questioned whether she was capable of doing her job in her "condition" and in her "state."...Days later, Mullay allegedly directed Papageorge's supervisor, Jan Dowe, to fire her. But Dowe refused, and the head of Mothers Work's human resources department told Dowe that firing Papageorge would be illegal, according to Itzkowitz (Papageorge’s attorney).

Though we’re not taking an opinion on the guilt or innocence of the defendant in the case we would like to find fault in the Mothers Work public relations office. Bostonist would like to think that when you’ve got an upscale chain of maternity stores you wouldn’t want anyone walking around badmouthing you, especially claiming that they were fired because of a pregnancy. It’s just going to lead to headlines like, well, Maternity Store Facing...yeah, you get the picture.

We stand corrected. If the PR machine at Mothers Work is going to use white-trash-wannabe Mrs. Federline as a celebrity spokes model maybe they’re just looking to get their peas in any pod that will take them.

Firing Photo via NBC's Apprentice, Thanks Don.