Federal officials say an airline ramp and cargo handling company that operated at Detroit Metropolitan Airport will pay $120,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.
The suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged that Simplicity Ground Services LLC violated federal law by forcing Raylynn Bishop and other pregnant employees onto unpaid leave.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Simplicity also refused to accommodate pregnancy-related lifting restrictions. Non-pregnant employees with similar restrictions, however, were routinely granted light duty.
This alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Simplicity Ground Services LLC., Case No. 2:18-cv-10989) against Simplicity in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
The three-year consent decree settling the suit, in addition to providing for the award of monetary relief to affected pregnant employees, enjoins Simplicity from forcing pregnant employees onto unpaid leave in the future.
The decree also prohibits Simplicity from discharging employees because of pregnancy in the future, as well as maintaining any policy which requires a pregnant employee to automatically obtain medical clearance to continue working.
Simplicity must also provide live anti-discrimination training to certain employees, develop a written pregnancy discrimination policy to be distributed to all employees, and submit annual reports to the EEOC for the duration of the decree.
Source: EEOC
Topics Lawsuits
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
Allstate Reports $731M in Q1 Pretax Catastrophe Losses 
How California’s Huge Raises for Fast-Food Workers Will Ripple Across Industries 
Why New York’s Attorney General Objects to Trump’s Bond Insurer 
Chubb to Acquire MGA Healthy Paws From Aon 
