Management Services Company Fired Pregnant Housekeeper, Federal Agency Charged
BALTIMORE - Greystar Management Services, LP, will pay $25,000 and furnish significant remedial relief to settle a federal pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.
According to the EEOC's suit, employee Amada Lucero informed company management that she was pregnant and requested that she be excused from working with certain cleaning products. A company manager demanded that she provide medical documentation confirming that she was pregnant and clearing her to work with cleaning chemicals. Lucero's doctor would not provide her with the required documentation, but Lucero nonetheless determined that she would continue working and perform her normal duties. Greystar Management Services disregarded Lucero's choice to work and fired her.
Such 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. Greystar Management Services, LP., Civil Action No. 11-cv-02789 ELH) in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Southern Division, after first attempting to reach a voluntary pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to the $25,000 in monetary relief to Lucero, the 30-month consent decree resolving the lawsuit enjoins Greystar Management Services from discriminating against any person based on sex or pregnancy. The company will implement and disseminate to all employees a policy prohibiting pregnancy discrimination and will provide training to all officers and managers at its Maryland facilities. The company will also post a remedial notice about the settlement.
"We still receive far too many pregnancy discrimination charges where a lower-income worker is fired simply because of pregnancy," said EEOC Philadelphia District Director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr. "It's in society's interest, as well as required by federal law, to allow a pregnant worker to continue to work and support herself and her family when she is able to do the job, as Ms. Lucero was."
EEOC Philadelphia Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence added, "This settlement includes meaningful equitable relief that ensures that Greystar Management Services will treat all pregnant employees and applicants the same as non-pregnant individuals who are similar in their ability to work."
The Philadelphia District Office of the EEOC oversees Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey and Ohio.
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the Commission is available at its website, www.eeoc.gov.
