SAN ANTONIO — Nix Hospitals System, LLC, has agreed to pay $40,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit, according to a release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The lawsuit, filed by the EEOC, alleges that the hospital refused to accommodate an employee's pregnancy-related medical restrictions, resulting in her termination.
According to the release, the employee applied for two open desk positions which would have allowed her to work, even with her medical-restrictions, but the hospital "denied her such light-duty positions" while other non-pregnant employees injured on the job with medical restrictions were granted light duty.
The release refers to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which is part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlining guidelines that employers are "prohibited from engaging in discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, including when employers refuse to accommodate a worker's pregnancy-related medical conditions but do accommodate other workers similar in their ability or inability to work."
In addition to the payment to the employee, the hospital is required to provide training to employees of their rights and to revise its policy to ensure that it prohibits pregnancy discrimination.
"A woman should not have to choose between her pregnancy and her job," EEOC Supervisory Trial Attorney Eduardo Juarez said in response to the case.
