Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Maternity store discriminates against moms

In what has to be one of the most bizarre cases I've heard lately, Motherhood Maternity (which also owns Mimi Maternity and Pea in the Pod) settled a lawsuit filed by the EEOC that claimed the company failed to hire women because they were pregnant and retaliated against a woman who complained about it.

In addition to monetary relief ($375,000 total), the company must adopt an anti-discrimination policy, provide training, post a notice regarding the lawsuit, and report to the EEOC twice annually regarding pregnancy discrimination complaints.

Discriminating against qualified job applicants because of pregnancy status is a violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and complaints about violations of this law have risen in recent years, along with the monetary benefits awarded to plaintiffs.

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