Was a pregnant woman fired from her job as a bartender for being pregnant? She says she's still in shock about what her boss said about her, and it's all caught on tape! INSIDE EDITION has the story.
A pregnant woman says she's still in shock over what her boss said about her, and she got it all on tape.
Boss: "Each week you are getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more unsexy, unsexy, unsexy, okay? It's more obvious, obvious, obvious that you are pregnant, pregnant, pregnant."
29-year-old Jennifer Paviglianiti worked as a bartender at a gentleman's club Café Royale on Long Island, New York, for two years.
"I was a great employee...I never called in sick I rarely took time off," she says.
But last June, she got pregnant. Jennifer says she had wanted to wait three months to tell her boss, but word got out.
"Everything was fine until I started showing," Paviglianiti says.
That's when she says her boss called her in for a meeting and told her that her job was in jeopardy. "He told me I only had probably a few weeks left."
So Paviglianiti decided to take action and secretly record her conversations with her boss.
Boss: "Customers don't want to come in and see a pregnant woman behind the bar. Why can't you get that through your head? You're not getting it."
"What made you decide to record your conversation?" asks INSIDE EDITION's Megan Alexander.
"I just knew if I didn't have proof I had no leg to stand on," she says.
Her boyfriend lent her his digital voice recorder and Paviglianiti hid it in her jacket pocket; she couldn't believe what she caught on tape.
Boss: "They're not coming in to see sexy bartenders that are pregnant, that are bulging out, I'm sorry."
Paviglianiti: I'm not doing a bad job; I'm ringing up my register!"
Boss: "Customer's don't wanna come in and see a pregnant woman behind the bar! Why can't you get that through your head, you're not getting it."
Paviglianiti claims that after her boss found out about the recordings, he decided not to fire her but instead changed her job from bartender to cashier.
But Paviglianiti tells INSIDE EDITION she made less than half as much money as she made when she was a bartender.
Cafe Royale says her allegations are without merit. Jennifer "...was not terminated...and presently is on maternity leave...and has the right to return to work."
Still, Jennifer has now hired attorney Jack Tuckner and filed an anti-discrimination complaint.
"This tape will be quite useful proving discrimination," Tuckner told INSIDE EDITION.
"How did it make you feel?" asks Megan Alexander.
"I was hurt," admits Paviglianiti
Jennifer's baby, her first, is due any day. It's a girl and she'll be named Lucy Nicole.
