Pregnant cause

Avon exec’s firing sparks bias claim

Avon fired a female executive less than a month into her new job after she asked to work from home temporarily because of a high-risk pregnancy, according to a lawsuit.

The door-to-door cosmetics giant — which boasts in its marketing about standing “above all, for women” — canned its new global head of procurement in February just days after she disclosed her pregnancy to her boss, according to the suit filed in Manhattan federal court.

Caroline Ruiz claims that three weeks into her new job in late January, she began to experience heavy bleeding and was rushed to the emergency room.

Doctors told her there was “an exceedingly high likelihood that she would suffer a miscarriage,” according to the suit.

Against her doctor’s recommendation and despite continued pain, Ruiz came into work at Avon’s Manhattan offices the following week — only to be confronted by her boss, Raj Nath, over unspecified “performance issues,” according to the suit.

When Ruiz told Nath that she was concerned she might have a miscarriage, Nath responded, “Your health isn’t my concern but your performance is,” the suit alleges.

The suit claims that Avon employees, including Nath, “routinely worked from home or away from the office.”

Ruiz then spent the weekend preparing a presentation because she was “determined to do a good job,” the suit says.

But when Ruiz, against doctor’s orders, showed up to the office on Feb. 5 she was called into a meeting with senior Avon exec Jacklyn Marcus and fired for “performance deficiencies,” the suit says.

The “proximity between [the] plaintiff ’s hospital stay, request for a day off and to work from home, coupled with her disclosure of her high-risk pregnancy undeniably create an inference of discrimination,” according to the complaint.

Ruiz did give birth to a healthy baby, her lawyer told The Post on Wednesday.

Avon did not respond to a request for comment.