In October 2008, there was a high-profile lawsuit in the news between New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and three high-level executives at Bloomberg (the company he owns) who were pregnant.
According to the article, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg Testifies in Pregnancy Discrimination Case, by Steven Ertelt:
“In one complaint, Bloomberg allegedly told a leading saleswoman, "Kill it" when he found out she was pregnant.
The New York Post indicated Bloomberg himself gave a deposition to attorneys Thursday morning that lasted several hours.
The EEOC lawsuit, filed on behalf of more than 80 women, said the company ‘is responsible for the creation of the systemic, top-down culture of discrimination which exists within Bloomberg, and...has been sued in the past...by several female executives who have alleged in their lawsuits that a hostile environment exists for women at Bloomberg.’
The female employees described the Bloomberg company culture as one that ‘prizes physical image and once female executives announce that they are pregnant and/or become new mothers, they fall into disfavor.’
The women said they were paid less after returning from maternity leave and demoted and replaced with male employees once they returned.”
Mayor Bloomberg settled the case outside of court and never admitted to anything.
(For more on this case, read: the article.)
In my opinion, pregnancy discrimination lawsuits tend to happen when employers make certain mistakes. Here are some helpful reminders:
- Don’t refer to employees’ pregnancies in a negative or discriminatory way. Although this sounds pretty obvious, it’s a mistake you definitely don’t want to make. Managers need to avoid making inappropriate comments about pregnancy just as they would avoid making inappropriate comments regarding race, religion, age, etc.
- Don’t demote or terminate female employees after they come back from maternity leave or while they are pregnant. Don’t stereotype. Employers tend to believe that pregnant women are unable to perform their job duties as well as they could before the pregnancy, or that once they become mothers they will want to work fewer hours or won’t be as committed to working as they once were.
- If a pregnant employee has a performance issue, treat her as any other employee by documenting the concerns, and work towards improving the employee’s performance. You must give employees a fair shot at improving before you can terminate them.
- If you’re doing a layoff and a pregnant employee is one of the employees being laid off, please make absolutely certain that the pregnancy is not a factor in the decision. There must be concrete proof that the decision stemmed solely from business reasons.
In my next Insight, I’ll give you steps to take to help avoid pregnancy discrimination lawsuits and an example of how I helped a company do the same thing.