Preventive education
How does the federal government inform the public about the anti-harassment laws? The EEOC says bad publicity about sued employers helps.
“The public nature of law enforcement can serve as one effective form of preventative education,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Robert Canino.
Canino was talking about a recent pregnancy discrimination case involving Studio 69, a nightclub in El Paso, Texas. According to the agency, when the club learned a bartender was pregnant, it place her on indefinite “pregnancy leave” – or as the EEOC describes the situation: “it fired Crystal Aguilar from her job.”
The take-away lesson is that treating an employee differently because of her pregnancy violates Title VII when “the employer had neither requested nor received any information from her doctor regarding her physical ability to perform her job duties.”
The EEOC’s announcement cited a fetal-protection chestnut, the 1991 case International Union v. Johnson Controls. “The United States Supreme Court explicitly held that the decision to work while being pregnant was reserved for each individual, not her employer, to make,” explained EEOC lawyer Tisha Dominguez.
“The public nature of law enforcement can serve as one effective form of preventative education,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Robert Canino.
Canino was talking about a recent pregnancy discrimination case involving Studio 69, a nightclub in El Paso, Texas. According to the agency, when the club learned a bartender was pregnant, it place her on indefinite “pregnancy leave” – or as the EEOC describes the situation: “it fired Crystal Aguilar from her job.”
The take-away lesson is that treating an employee differently because of her pregnancy violates Title VII when “the employer had neither requested nor received any information from her doctor regarding her physical ability to perform her job duties.”
The EEOC’s announcement cited a fetal-protection chestnut, the 1991 case International Union v. Johnson Controls. “The United States Supreme Court explicitly held that the decision to work while being pregnant was reserved for each individual, not her employer, to make,” explained EEOC lawyer Tisha Dominguez.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 23, 2009 at 8:35 PM.
