Nasty Gal accused of purposely firing pregnant employees

London - A new lawsuit filed by a former Nasty Gal employee could damage the "millennial" feminist image of the fashion brand created by its founder Sophia Amoruso. Former employee Aimee Concepcion claims the label is "a horrible place to work for professional women who become pregnant," and has accused the brand of illegally terminating her contract after she became pregnant.

The lawsuit, which was filed by Concepcion on March 10 in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Nasty Gal of illegally firing four pregnant women as well as one man about to take paternity leave. In addition, the lawsuit claims the company systemically terminates pregnant employees, without offering them four months of unpaid leave which is guaranteed for new mothers under California Law.

Nasty Gal said to send pregnant employees packing

According to the complaint, which was originally reported by Jezebel, Concepcion first began working under Nasty Gal's new Home Goods section in December 2013 and at the time received "stellar reviews" for her work from her supervisor Camilla Whitman. In February, 2014 she discovered she was pregnant and informed Whitman in April, who reportedly did not seem pleased with the news.

Shortly afterwards Whitman reportedly told Concepcion that Nasty Gal would not have to provider her with maternity leave, since she would have only been employed for nine months on her due date and an HR noted she would be given six weeks off if she delivered naturally, or eight weeks if she had a C-Section. In June the fashion label approved to taking on a temporary replacement for Concepison the file claims, but in August she was dismissed together with a number of employees as the business was said to be "reassessing their budgets."

These terminations were part of a larger round of layoffs carried out by the label last year, which resulted in 10 percent of Nasty Gal's workforce being cut. The file states that Concepcion was termination was for none-related performance reason, but she was told she could keep working up until she gave birth and would be given health care coverage through December 2014 if she signed a severance agreement, which included waiving her right to sue them. As she did not sign the agreement when she gave birth to her daughter in November, the fashion label has not registered her for COBRA coverage and left her uninsured.

Concepcion is currently seeking unspecified damages for sex discrimination, pregnancy discrimination, wrongful termination and breach of contract, among other things. A spokesperson for Nasty Gal has responded to the claims in the lawsuit: "The accusations made in the lawsuits are false, defamatory and taken completely out of context. The layoffs in question were part of a larger restructuring of departments we completed over nine months ago. The lawsuits are frivolous and without merit."