AUGUSTA – An Augusta restaurant ran afoul of the law when it refused to let a pregnant waitress work in the cocktail lounge to protect her against secondhand smoke, the Maine Human Rights Commission concluded.

By a vote of 4-1, the panel sided Monday with Jacqualine B. Graham of Augusta in her claim that management of Sally’s Steakhouse & Grille discriminated against her by assigning work duties based on her pregnancy.

Commission decisions do not carry the weight of law, but can become grounds for lawsuits. The commission staff tries to negotiate a settlement acceptable to both parties.

Graham was hired as a waitress Sept. 12, 1997, and also worked as a bartender and occasionally as a hostess in the dining room and lounge, according to the report by commission investigator Susan Clark.

After Graham notified her supervisor she was pregnant, she continued to work regular shifts until she feared she was losing the baby. A doctor cleared her to return to work, but told her to avoid heavy lifting.

In response, the restaurant management created a position that had Graham working in the office and as a hostess. Two weeks later, Graham got a note from her doctor which cleared her to return to waiting tables.

On Graham’s return to the lounge, a supervisor told her she didn’t want her there because she was pregnant and there was too much smoke. But Graham maintained she was there by choice.

Warren Kessler, who cast the commission’s lone vote against the discrimination finding, noted that the state has a position that smoking can be harmful to pregnant women.

Clark told him it is “unlawful for an employer to unilaterally limit a pregnant woman’s job opportunities.”

In recommending a finding that there was reasonable grounds for a discrimination finding, Clark wrote, “Respondent officials violated the law when they assigned her work duties based solely on their own feelings and fears about what she should and should not do while pregnant.”

The commission rejected Graham’s accompanying claim that she was fired because of her pregnancy.