Mom sues employer for maternity leave pay

A Riverhead woman who says she was denied paid maternity leave after a surrogate gave birth to her twins has filed a federal discrimination suit against her employer.

The suit, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, alleges the company told the woman she was only eligible for a paid adoptive parent leave of five days. Among other things the suit seeks back pay for the maternity leave period.

An attorney for Kara Krill, 38, said Friday in an email she did not want to speak publicly about the case because it "is a highly personal and emotional case, and she is not seeking attention or national exposure."

Her lawyer, Charles F. Rodman, of Needham, Mass., said she suffers from Asherman's syndrome, "a pregnancy-related medical condition that prevents her from giving birth."

The twins were born April 3. On Aug. 10 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued Krill a notice of right to sue, which she did Wednesday.

Krill remains in her job as a clinical business manager for Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Lexington, Mass., marketing and selling an antibacterial cream working from home.

Her condition is protected under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, her lawyer said.

A Cubist spokesman, Francis McLoughlin, said in an email the company does not comment on matters in litigation, adding, "We work really hard to have good relationships with our employees, and that has been evidenced by our inclusion on 'Top Places to Work' lists" in such publications as The Boston Globe.

When she was hired in November 2006, Krill was given a benefits package including "13 weeks paid leave for the birth of a child" for female employees, her suit says.

Krill learned "in the fall of 2006" that she was pregnant, she says in her suit. She gave birth in June 2007 and was given 13 weeks of paid leave, the suit says. By December 2007 she was diagnosed with Asherman's syndrome, a disability that limits her from carrying a child, the suit says.

In September 2009 she told her supervisor that she and her husband, Richard, planned to have another child -- this time through a surrogate.

"One of the primary purposes of maternity leave is to allow for the bonding between mother and child and to allow for the special care that a newborn requires during its first few months of life," Krill wrote to Cubist, the lawsuit says. She said that if not for her disability, she would have carried the twins herself.