News Notes: Telephone Company Will Pay $25 Million To Settle Pregnancy Discrimination Claims

Pacific Bell has agreed to pay $25 million to settle charges that it didn’t credit pregnancy leave toward an employee’s service when calculating retirement benefits. As many as 10,000 women who took leave before 1979, when Congress passed the federal law banning pregnancy discrimination, may share in the settlement. The class action suit was filed by Lana Pallas, who found herself a few days short of qualifying for an early retirement package because the company did not count time she took off to have a baby years ago – before employers were legally required to treat pregnancy leave the same as other types of leave. Prior to this settlement, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal had ruled that Pacific Bell could be liable since the reduced pension benefits are currently adversely affecting women who had taken pregnancy leave. A similar lawsuit is pending against Bell Atlantic.