An Illinois nursing home agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Joliet, Ill.-based Symphony Deerbrook, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, was accused of with violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of Title VII by implementing a policy requiring employees to inform the company of any pregnancy and obtain a physician's note to release them to work without restrictions, according to an April 12 EEOC news release. The nursing home also allegedly denied employees with pregnancy-related restrictions reasonable accommodations and terminated them, though other employees with similar accommodations were not restricted or fired.
The $400,000 will be disbursed among 11 affected employees. Symphony also agreed, through a consent decree, to provide anti-discrimination training to all employees, post a notice about the resolution of the lawsuit and report to the EEOC certain types of information during the decree's terms.