Dive Temporary:
- A barber and hairstyling school in Texas agreed to settle claims introduced by the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee alleging it rejected an applicant due to her being pregnant, EEOC stated Thursday.
- EEOC introduced its lawsuit towards Dallas Barber & Stylist Faculty, Inc., in 2024, alleging the employer rejected a candidate for a hair braider place regardless of her profitable completion of a abilities check. EEOC claimed this was as a result of the employer already employed one other pregnant worker and that an proprietor stated using two such staff wouldn’t be within the “finest curiosity” of the enterprise.
- In accordance with a consent decree between the events, the employer agreed to supply again pay with curiosity, compensatory and punitive damages, and different aid together with updates to its insurance policies and workforce coaching. The corporate didn’t admit violations of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Dive Perception:
Being pregnant discrimination has featured closely in EEOC’s litigation exercise beneath Chair Andrea Lucas. In February, for instance, the fee sued operators of Washington, D.C., restaurant chain Correct 21 for allegedly pressuring a pregnant worker to take maternity depart early, firing her whereas on depart and changing her with a male worker. Litigation within the case stays ongoing.
Final yr, EEOC introduced a sequence of settlements in being pregnant discrimination circumstances, one in all which concerned an employer’s alleged refusal to schedule a short lived employee upon studying of her being pregnant, after which firing the employee.
Employers violate Title VII — as amended by the Being pregnant Discrimination Act — once they discriminate towards staff on the idea of being pregnant, together with within the hiring course of, in keeping with EEOC steerage.
“If an employer rejects a professional applicant due to her being pregnant, the EEOC stands able to implement federal regulation and treatment that illegal conduct,” Linda Gross sales-Lengthy, performing district director for EEOC, stated within the company’s press launch.
Congress additional bolstered protections for pregnant employees in 2022 with passage of the Pregnant Staff Equity Act, which requires employers to supply office lodging to such employees or these with pregnancy- or childbirth-related well being situations.
EEOC, tasked with implementing the PWFA, finalized a rule in 2024 throughout the Biden administration. The rule proved politically controversial because of its inclusion of abortion beneath its definition of the medical situations for which employers are required to supply lodging.
A number of court docket choices have since enjoined EEOC from enforcement of the rule’s abortion-related protections. Lucas opposed the rule at time of its adoption and took particular difficulty with the company’s interpretation of the checklist of medical situations coated by the PWFA.
Nevertheless, EEOC continues to implement the PWFA’s provisions. In February, an Oklahoma medical clinic agreed to settle with the company in a lawsuit alleging it did not accommodate an worker who had a high-risk being pregnant. The company claimed in its criticism that the employer’s HR employees had not been conscious of the PWFA.
