Pregnant employee was reassigned to work near glue fumes at NC plant, lawsuit says

Hayley Fowler
Updated

A woman working as a machine operator at a manufacturing plant in North Carolina is suing for discrimination after she said supervisors made her work in the glue department while pregnant.

She was fired within two months of disclosing her pregnancy, according to court filings.

Jessica M. Betancourt accused Snyder Paper Corporation in Hickory of violating the Civil Rights Act by firing her based on her sex and pregnancy in a lawsuit moved to federal court this week. She is seeking more than $25,000 in damages, a jury trial and court costs, according to the complaint.

An attorney representing Betancourt did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Wednesday. Counsel and a representative for Snyder also did not respond.

Snyder started out selling paper towels to the furniture industry in the 1940s, according to its website. The company has since grown into a national distributor for industrial and agricultural supply solutions in addition to manufacturing cushions. It operates facilities in North and South Carolina and is headquartered in Hickory, about an hour northwest of Charlotte in Catawba County.

Betancourt first sued Snyder in December 2020 in the Superior Court Division of Catawba County, court records show.

But Snyder’s defense attorney had the case moved to the Western District of North Carolina on Monday, saying her claims under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 fall under federal — not state — jurisdiction.

According to the complaint, Betancourt started working for Snyder in February 2017. For the first two years, Betancourt “performed her job in a satisfactory standard” and was promoted from hand cutter to machine operator, according to her attorney.

In January 2019, the complaint says Betancourt started having cramps at work. She told her supervisor, who reportedly responded by saying “she couldn’t just go home every time she had a cramp.” Betancourt soon discovered she was pregnant.

She disclosed the pregnancy to her supervisor and asked him keep it a secret, citing the possibility of a miscarriage. He then told higher-ups at the company, Betancourt’s attorney said.

“As an excuse for violating the request for confidentiality, (he) made a statement to the effect that once Betancourt began to get bigger, people were going to notice and begin asking questions, so the breach of confidentiality wasn’t really a big deal anyway,” the complaint said.

After Betancourt asked for help lifting heavy items onto the machinery, her attorney said the company hired someone to replace her. Betancourt was reportedly required to train her replacement, and she was subsequently moved to the glue department — which was “functionally a demotion,” according to the lawsuit.

“This glue gave off significant fumes of which Betancourt expressed concerns to her superiors regarding their potential effect on her unborn child,” the complaint said.

Betancourt was given a mask to wear in response, but the lawsuit says it “proved to be insufficient.”

The complaint alleges Snyder failed to adequately comply with Betancourt’s request for accommodation and instead “maliciously transferred her to a new work environment in which she was less suited to work.”

At the end of February, Betancourt called out of work for a few days when she took her boyfriend out of the state to see his dying grandfather, according to the lawsuit. Her boss reportedly asked her to let him know when she got back but didn’t mention the days would be counted as unexcused absences, Betancourt’s attorney said.

She was fired on March 1, 2019. Her boyfriend, who also worked at the plant in a different department, was reportedly not reprimanded.

Betancourt filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission a month later, and the EEOC issued a right-to-sue notice in September 2020. Her lawsuit makes claims for wrongful discharge and retaliation. Snyder has not responded to the allegations, federal court filings show.

Originally published

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