The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has struck hard in two recent settlements of monstrous proportions.

In the first case, the federal agency claimed that Muskegon River Youth Home in Michigan maintained a policy that discriminated against pregnant employees.

The lawsuit specified that the company required pregnant staff to:

  1. report any pregnancy immediately to the firm
  2. obtain a note from a physician which certifies that the staffer can still work
  3. if an employee cannot get a note, she must take leave throughout the pregnancy, and
  4. remain on leave until 30 days after the pregnancy.

That, according to the agency, violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act because it treated non-pregnant workers better than pregnant ones.

But what’s most astounding is the reparations agreed to by the company, which include a 10-year (!) consent decree.

In addition, the company agreed to:

  • rescind its pregnancy policy
  • conduct training on pregnancy bias, and
  • provide periodic reports to the EEOC.

No accommodations, no restrictions

The second case involved Interstate Distributor Company in Denver and its allegedly illegal leave policy that applied to its 1,800 employees.

In the lawsuit it filed against the company, the EEOC claimed that Interstate instituted two unlawful policies:

  • If a staffer needed more needed more than 12 weeks of leave, Interstate automatically terminated him or her rather than attempting to determine if a reasonable accommodation would help provide them leave, and
  • If a staff member had workplace restrictions, Interstate refused to allow him or her to return to work and failed to determine if there were reasonable accommodations that would allow the employee to return to work with restrictions.

That was a major violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), said the EEOC, which filed suit against Interstate.

In settling the case, the company agreed to pay a whopping $4.85 million in monetary relief. Interstate will also:

  • revise its policies to include reasonable accommodations for disabled staff
  • provide mandatory periodic training on the ADA to workers
  • report to the EEOC about all complaints of disability bias relating to the attendance policy, and
  • post a notice about the settlement.

The post Illegal policies: 2 settlements show EEOC’s not messing around appeared first on HR Morning.

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