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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reached a $100,000 settlement of a pregnancy discrimination case against an oil and gas testing firm that allegedly terminated a clerk after she sought time off to address her miscarriage.
Laredo, Texas-based Platinum P.T.S. Inc., which provides oil and gas testing, measuring, surveying and analysis as well as oil and gas exploration and development, fired the clerk in 2011. That was after the clerk’s request for time off to seek medical treatment after miscarrying, the EEOC said.
The former employee also accused Texans Oil & Gas Services L.L.C., a related company the EEOC said was owned and managed by the president of Platinum P.T.S., of pregnancy discrimination.
The settlement announced Thursday includes paying the former employee $100,000.
The company had been accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.
“Employers must be on notice that it can be illegal and costly to treat pregnant employees differently solely because of their pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition,” EEOC Senior Trial Attorney David Rivela said in a statement. “Employers should not assume that miscarriages will affect employees’ ability to work.”
A company spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Women continue to experience significant workplace pregnancy discrimination, concludes a report by two women’s groups that calls for more legislation in this area.