Who Do These Laws Protect?

by Samantha

I work part-time at the Legal Aid Clinic of our local law school as an administrative assistant (a glorified way of saying I'm a secretary). Since I became a mom 2 years ago, I have never been more discriminated against by the law school and the faculty and staff of the clinic. When I was about 5 months pregnant with my son, I complained to the law school that they were working me 40 hours a week, but not giving me full-time benefits. At our university, the part-time benefits aren't affordable so I was really hoping for the chance to have my position turned full time so I could get health, dental and leave time benefits.
However, after I complained, I was immediately cut from 40 hours down to 32.5, which was 7.5 more than I had been working prior to the 7 months of 40 hours a week. They said I should be happy they gave me those extra hours, yet it still meant I was part-time and I wasn't going to receive benefits.

Then, as I was preparing for leave, I found out that if I wanted to start my leave time 2 weeks before the baby was born, I had to run the gauntlet of the administration, begging for time to prepare my house for a new life. Eventually, my midwives wrote a doctor’s note saying I had to leave before the baby was born because work was a health risk. They let me go, grudgingly. After the baby was born, I was supposed to have 12 full weeks of leave time. However, I continued to do work from home all summer even though there was a temp in my position and because of being out on leave, I couldn't actually get paid for the work I was doing until I returned.
Needless to say, I didn't get any sort of pay for my leave to begin with, except a measly 4 weeks of short-term disability at about 30% of my normal pay. Then, my supervisor decided she wanted to take vacation that last 2 weeks of my leave and insisted I return to work early to be with the temp while she went to Florida for a vacation.

Since my son has been born I've had to beg and plead to let him come to the office for the last hour of work in the evening so my husband can go to class (I've been putting him through college for 3 years). I actually had to get the President's office involved because the law school informed me that having my son at work was in violation of some rule put down by the President. I, of course, contacted him immediately only to find out that there is no rule in place and in fact, if you are a supervisor or "more important person" at the university, you can bring you children whenever you need or want to. So I fought this decision to not allow my son at the clinic, particularly since the entire incident stemmed from my boss taking a 2 week vacation and requiring me to work 40 hours even though I didn't have that much daycare for my 4 month old son so he would have to come to the office during the morning while my husband was in class (and my boss agreed). The law school and university ruled against me instructing me that I could not get my work done while me son was in the office, so he was not allowed there during business hours!

Unfortunately, Maine is not a booming state with jobs and even though I continually apply for other positions, as soon as my being a mother comes up, the tone changes and I am denied the position. People keep telling me that I need to hide the fact I'm a mother during the interview process because it will hurt my chances of getting a job! I, however, can't allow myself to do that because who wants a job that would treat you that way?