Former Netflix Executive Says She Was Fired for Being Pregnant

Former Netflix executive Tania Zarak is suing the video streaming giant, claiming she was fired for being pregnant, Variety reports.

Only a few short months ago, Zarak was working as a manager for Netflix’s international originals division. Once she revealed she was pregnant, she noticed she was being left out of meetings. Her supervisor, Francisco Ramos, began to ignore her and made rude comments about her appearance, and even cut her off from a show she was working on according to Variety’s report.

After speaking to her human resources department about the issue, she was called into a meeting with Ramos. During their exchange, Zarak reassured her boss that she planned to work throughout her pregnancy, and would then take her maternity leave when she was due in May. Despite the reassurances, he was “visibly agitated” and suggested she leave the job and accept a payout with insurance.

The next day Ramos called her in to a meeting with an HR employee and told her she was being let go. Needless to say, the mom-to-be is calling out Netflix for pregnancy discrimination. The lawsuit mentions while Netflix’s policy allows employees to take up to a year off to care for their newborn child, it actually “retaliates” against employees who do.

“We have previously looked into these claims and determined they were unfounded,” the company said in a statement. “Netflix works hard to ensure that employees with families, or who are starting a family, have the flexibility and support they need.”

Although the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) updated its rules against pregnancy discrimination in 2015, we still hear about unfair treatment in the workplace. In addition to pregnancy discrimination stories, there are also a handful of lawsuits against companies who’ve made it nearly impossible for moms to pump at work. Justice was served earlier this year, when a woman won a 1.5 million lawsuit for breastfeeding discriminaiton.

Hopefully these public examples of discrimination will change the narrative and help secure the livliehood of working moms.