It May Sound Like Goldilocks, but Pregnancy Discrimination Is No Fairy Tale

It sounds like a workplace version of Goldilocks, but to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it was no fairy tale, and the employer may have played the big bad wolf.

Once upon a time, two servers at a Tennessee restaurant told their managers they were pregnant.  As happens during a pregnancy, the women kept getting larger and larger.  The managers kept asking them when they were due to deliver their babies.

According to WMCA ActionNews5 Memphis, one day, the owner walked through the restaurant and told one of the women that she was “too big” to do her waitressing job, and she would be taken off the work schedule.

When she asked if she could be a hostess instead, he told her that business was “too slow.”

The owner and the managers told the servers to contact them after they gave birth, when they might be “just right” to resume their duties.

But in a not-so-happy ending, both eventually ended up being fired.

To their rescue came the federal EEOC! The EEOC filed suit against the corporation owning the restaurant and one in another location in district court for violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, after first attempting to reach a voluntary prelitigation settlement through its conciliation process.

“Employers do not have the discretion to determine when a pregnant employee is ‘too big’ to work,” said Faye A. Williams, regional attorney for EEOC’s Memphis District Office in a press release.

“As stated in the EEOC’s Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination, employment decisions that adversely affect pregnant women are unlawful, even when an employer relies on stereotypes or unconsciously believes they are acting in the employee’s best interest.”

The servers were awarded $25,000 in monetary relief. A 3-year consent decree settling the lawsuit prohibits the restaurant from subjecting employees to pregnancy discrimination or retaliating against any employee who lodges a discrimination complaint.

The consent decree also requires the restaurant to provide training on pregnancy discrimination, maintain records of any complaints of discrimination, and provide annual reports to the EEOC.