Can I Get Fired for Missing Work Due to Pregnancy?

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Last updated: May 2026 — Reflects current FEHA, PDL, and CFRA protections. 1000Attorneys.com is a California State Bar Certified Lawyer Referral Service (LRIS #0128), American Bar Association Authorized Program, and LawHelpCA Verified Resource Author, featured in Women's Insider's coverage of pregnancy discrimination rights in the California workplace.

The short answer is no. A California employer cannot lawfully fire you for missing work because of your pregnancy — whether you missed a day for a prenatal appointment, weeks for a complication, or are currently on protected leave. The law on this point is not ambiguous.

What is complicated is understanding which law applies to your situation and how far each protection extends. That distinction matters because employers who want to remove a pregnant worker have every incentive to disguise the termination as something else.

California provides more protection for pregnant workers than federal law does by a meaningful margin. The framework draws from three overlapping sources: the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), the Pregnancy Disability Leave Law (PDL), and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA).

Together, these statutes can provide an eligible employee with up to seven months of job-protected leave in connection with a single pregnancy. For the full picture of California's employee protections, see our guide to California employment law.

If your situation has already escalated to termination, the analysis in our California wrongful termination guide is a good place to start.

The Three Laws That Protect Pregnant Employees in California

Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) — Government Code §12945

PDL is California’s most direct protection for employees who are physically disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. Under Government Code Section 12945 and its implementing regulations at 2 Cal. Code Regs.

Section 11042, any employer with five or more employees must provide up to four months — approximately 17.3 weeks — of job-protected leave per pregnancy. There is no minimum hours-worked or length-of-service requirement. A part-time employee hired three months ago who develops gestational hypertension qualifies just as fully as a ten-year employee.

PDL leave can be taken all at once or intermittently, in hours or days as medically necessary. Your doctor determines the duration; your employer does not get to second-guess a physician’s certification. During the leave, your employer must maintain your group health insurance coverage under the same terms as if you had continued working.

When the leave ends, you are entitled to return to the same position — not a comparable one, the same position — unless your employer can demonstrate that the position would have been eliminated regardless of your leave.

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) is the enforcement agency for PDL violations. See the CRD’s employment protections page at calcivilrights.ca.gov/employment for the agency’s official guidance on PDL rights and how to file a complaint.

FEHA’s Broader Discrimination Prohibition

PDL covers physical disability from pregnancy. FEHA (Government Code Section 12940) goes further: it prohibits any adverse employment action — firing, demotion, reduced hours, reassignment to a less desirable role — based on pregnancy itself, on the fact that an employee might need leave in the future, or on stereotypes about how a pregnant employee will perform.

An employer who starts documenting performance issues the moment an employee announces her pregnancy, then fires her three months later for “performance,” is walking directly into a FEHA discrimination claim.

Pregnancy is a protected characteristic under FEHA, and the “substantial motivating factor” causation standard from Harris v. City of Santa Monica, 56 Cal.4th 203 (2013), means the employee does not need to prove pregnancy was the only reason for the termination — only that it genuinely played a significant role.

FEHA also independently requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions, separate from and in addition to PDL.

This means that even if an employee does not qualify for PDL — because her employer has fewer than five employees, for example — the accommodation obligation may still apply depending on the employer’s size under other provisions.

The full text of the PDL statute is available directly from the California Legislature at Government Code §12945.

CFRA Bonding Leave — Stacked After PDL

Once PDL ends, eligible employees can immediately transition into up to 12 weeks of baby-bonding leave under the California Family Rights Act (Government Code Section 12945.2).

CFRA requires 12 months of employment and at least 1,250 hours worked in the preceding year, at a worksite with five or more employees. Because PDL and CFRA run consecutively rather than concurrently, an employee who uses all four months of PDL and then takes 12 weeks of CFRA bonding leave has approximately seven months of protected time in total.

Law	Employer Size Threshold	Length of Leave	Job Protected?	Pay During Leave	Filing Deadline
California Pregnancy Disability Leave (PDL) — Govt Code § 12945	5+ employees	Up to 4 months per pregnancy	Yes — same or comparable position	Unpaid (eligible for SDI/PFL via EDD)	3 years to file CRD complaint
California Family Rights Act (CFRA) — Govt Code § 12945.2	5+ employees	Up to 12 weeks bonding leave (separate from PDL)	Yes — same or comparable position	Unpaid (eligible for PFL via EDD)	3 years to file CRD complaint
Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — 29 U.S.C. § 2601 (DOL)	50+ employees within 75-mile radius	Up to 12 weeks per 12-month period	Yes — same or comparable position	Unpaid	2 years to file (3 years for willful)
Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) + EEOC — Title VII via EEOC	15+ employees	N/A — anti-discrimination, not leave	Yes — protects against firing, demotion, harassment	N/A	300 days to file EEOC charge

The PDL and CFRA stack — California employees can use up to 4 months PDL plus 12 weeks CFRA bonding leave (effectively 7 months protected leave) for a single pregnancy. This is the most generous combined protection in the United States.

What “Job-Protected” Actually Means

Job protection means your employer cannot fire you, demote you, or otherwise take adverse action against you because you took leave.

An employer can eliminate a position during your leave if the elimination is part of a genuine restructuring that would have happened regardless of your absence — but the burden shifts to the employer to prove that.

Courts and the CRD are skeptical of restructurings that eliminate a single pregnant employee’s role while she is on leave, particularly when the duties simply get redistributed to remaining staff.

The more common scenario is subtler: an employee returns from PDL or CFRA leave to find that her most important projects were given away, her team was reorganized under a new manager, or her role was reclassified at a lower level.

Each of these actions, if tied to the leave, is an adverse employment action under FEHA. The employee does not need to be formally fired — a constructive discharge, meaning conditions made so unbearable that a reasonable person in her position would feel compelled to resign, is treated the same as a termination under California law and can support a California wrongful termination claim.

Lactation Discrimination: A Frequently Overlooked Protection

Termination for needing to pump breast milk at work is pregnancy discrimination under California law. Government Code Section 12926 expressly defines “sex discrimination” to include breastfeeding and any medically related condition regarding breastfeeding.

Labor Code Sections 1030–1034 separately require all employers — regardless of size — to provide reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space with a surface, seating, and access to electricity for employees to express milk.

An employer who refuses to provide this accommodation, or who disciplines or terminates an employee for requesting it, faces liability under both FEHA and the Labor Code.

The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement maintains employer guidance on this obligation at dir.ca.gov/dlse/Lactation_Accommodation.htm.

When the Employer’s Stated Reason Is a Pretext

Employers who terminate pregnant employees rarely announce the actual reason. The termination comes dressed as a performance issue, a budget cut, a restructuring, or an attendance problem.

The attendance framing is particularly common: the employer points to the pregnancy-related absences themselves as the basis for the discharge, attempting to use the protected leave as the justification for the adverse action.

California courts reject this directly. You cannot lawfully be fired for absences that were protected under PDL, FEHA, or CFRA, even if the absences were frequent or operationally inconvenient.

Pretext in pregnancy cases reveals itself through timing, inconsistency, and comparison. An employee with no documented performance problems before announcing her pregnancy who receives a performance improvement plan within weeks of the announcement and is terminated before her leave begins presents a clear pattern.

If non-pregnant employees with similar attendance records were treated differently, that comparison matters. Contemporaneous notes of what was said, when, and by whom are among the most valuable evidence available in these cases.

Filing Deadlines and Next Steps

Pregnancy discrimination and wrongful termination claims under FEHA must be filed with the California Civil Rights Department within three years of the most recent adverse action.

After filing, an employee can request an immediate right-to-sue notice, which triggers a one-year window to file a civil lawsuit in Superior Court. Waiting is the most common mistake: the three-year window feels long, but building a strong case — locating witnesses, preserving documents, identifying comparators — takes time, and evidence becomes harder to recover the further you get from the events.

If you were terminated while pregnant, while on PDL or CFRA leave, or shortly after returning from leave, the termination likely qualifies as a wrongful termination under California law.

The specific theories available — FEHA discrimination, FEHA retaliation, a Tameny public policy tort, or a breach of implied contract — depend on the specific facts. An employment attorney can assess which apply and which carry the strongest evidentiary foundation for your situation.

If you were fired or pushed out of your job because of pregnancy, California law gives you real remedies — but they come with deadlines.

What to Do Now If You Believe You Were Fired Due to Pregnancy

If you have been fired, demoted, harassed, or denied accommodation related to your pregnancy in California, the next steps determine whether your claim is preserved or extinguished:

1. Request your personnel file in writing under Labor Code § 1198.5 — your employer must produce it within 30 days.

2. Document the timeline of pregnancy disclosure, leave requests, accommodation requests, performance reviews, and termination.

3. Preserve evidence — forward work emails to a personal account before access is revoked.

4. File a CRD complaint within the three-year window under Government Code § 12960. For pregnancy claims that also implicate federal law, a parallel filing with the EEOC may be appropriate.

5. Consult California employment counsel — initial consultations are typically free, and contingency representation is standard for plaintiff-side employment cases.

For a broader context on California wrongful termination claims, see our California Wrongful Termination guide. For the procedural framework on filing a FEHA lawsuit, see our California CRD Right-to-Sue Notice guide. For the limitations periods that apply to multiple overlapping claims, see our 7 Statute of Limitations Clocks guide.

To request a free referral to a vetted California pregnancy discrimination attorney through our State Bar–certified service, call 661-310-7999 or submit your inquiry online.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my California employer fire me while I'm on pregnancy disability leave?

Generally no. California's PDL (Government Code § 12945) and CFRA (§ 12945.2) provide job protection — your employer must hold your position (or a comparable one) until you return. A termination during protected leave is presumptively retaliatory under FEHA. The narrow exception is when the employer can prove by clear and convincing evidence that termination would have occurred regardless of the leave — for example, a documented company-wide layoff that began before the pregnancy was disclosed.

My employer says they need someone reliable. Can they fire me for missing too many prenatal appointments?

No. Time off for prenatal care is protected under PDL. Your employer cannot count those absences against you in any attendance-based discipline policy. The California Civil Rights Department treats this as a textbook FEHA violation.

Does my employer have to accommodate pregnancy-related conditions like morning sickness or gestational diabetes?

Yes. Under California Government Code § 12945(a)(3)(A), employers with 5 or more employees must provide reasonable accommodation for pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Accommodations may include modified duties, more frequent breaks, schedule changes, or temporary transfer to a less hazardous position. The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) administered by the EEOC adds parallel federal protections for employers with 15+ employees.

What is the difference between PDL and CFRA?

PDL covers the period when the pregnant employee is medically unable to work due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions — up to 4 months. CFRA bonding leave covers the period after birth or placement for child bonding — up to 12 weeks. The two-stack: a California employee can use 4 months of PDL plus 12 weeks of CFRA bonding leave for a total of approximately 7 months of protected leave. Most California employees do not realize these run sequentially rather than concurrently.

Am I entitled to lactation accommodation when I return to work?

Yes. Under California Labor Code § 1030–1034 and the federal PUMP Act administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, employers must provide reasonable break time and a private space (not a bathroom) for expressing breast milk for up to one year after birth. Refusing to accommodate or retaliating for using the protection is a discrete violation.

My employer says my position was eliminated while I was on leave. Is that allowed?

Only if the elimination was genuinely independent of the pregnancy and would have occurred regardless. Position-elimination defenses are heavily scrutinized in California — particularly when the "elimination" coincides with protected leave or when the role is filled or restored shortly after termination under a different title. The 2024 California Department of Civil Rights settlement with Microsoft for $14.4 million addressed exactly this pattern: the agency found that Microsoft systematically suppressed bonuses, performance ratings, and promotions for employees who took parental, disability, or pregnancy leave. See the CRD announcement.

How quickly should I act if I think I was wrongfully terminated due to pregnancy?

Within 30 days, you should: (1) request your personnel file in writing under Labor Code § 1198.5; (2) document the timeline of disclosure, complaint, and termination; (3) preserve emails and HR communications; (4) consult California employment counsel. The CRD limitations period for filing an administrative complaint is three years, but evidence preservation should not wait.

What damages can I recover for pregnancy discrimination in California?

FEHA recoverable damages include lost wages and benefits, future lost earnings, emotional distress, attorneys' fees, and where malice or oppression is shown, punitive damages under Civil Code § 3294. Pregnancy discrimination cases regularly produce six- and seven-figure recoveries in California — see for example the $185 million Juarez v. AutoZone verdict (subsequently reduced on appeal but underlying liability sustained).

Government Sources Referenced in This Article:

•  California Civil Rights Department — Employment Protections Overview: calcivilrights.ca.gov/employment

•  California Legislature — Government Code §12945 (Pregnancy Disability Leave): leginfo.legislature.ca.gov

•  California DIR — Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, Lactation Accommodation: dir.ca.gov/dlse/Lactation_Accommodation.htm

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. California employment law is highly fact-specific. For guidance on your particular situation, consult a licensed California employment attorney.