JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A pregnancy discrimination lawsuit has been settled for $125,000, officials announced Wednesday.
The Day & Zimmermann Group Inc. and Sunrise Beach Corporation, doing business as M2 Services Corporation, have agreed to pay the settlement in response to the suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
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Day & Zimmermann and M2 violated the law by subjecting a pregnant worker to discrimination, forcing her to take an unpaid leave of absence upon learning that she was pregnant and ultimately firing her because of her pregnancy, the EEOC alleged in the lawsuit.
The M2 employee was an aircraft cleaner, responsible for cleaning aircraft parts.
She told her company about the pregnancy in January 2016, which is around the same time M2 placed her on an involuntary and unpaid leave of absence, claiming that she needed to obtain medical authorization before returning to work, according to a news release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Even after her medical provider cleared her, M2 refused to allow her to return to work and, in February 2016, M2 fired her, the EEOC said.
In addition to the $125,000, an agreement settling the lawsuit will "help secure a workplace free from sex discrimination in all of its forms, and pregnancy discrimination in particular," a statement says.
M2 will have to create and put into place a pregnancy nondiscrimination policy and annual mandatory training for all managers and staff. M2 will also provide a job reference for its former employee.