Bloomberg LP, the financial service and media giant has been indicted of discriminating against pregnant employees by demoting or cutting their pay based on the maternity leave. The US government has sued the company for its discerning behavior towards pregnant women.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Bloomberg in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Allegedly, female employees’ duties were reduced at Bloomberg after they disclosed that they were pregnant.
The lawsuit also said that in some cases, managers questioned the women's ability to carry out their work because of family responsibilities. After becoming pregnant, the women were substituted by junior male employees, disqualified from management meetings or subjected to comments like "you are not committed," and "you don't want to be here." Complaints made by the employees to the company's human resources department were dismissed, the suit says.
Bloomberg LP discarded the accusations and said the suit was “completely without merit” and the company will strongly defend itself.
The commission came into action after Jill Patricot, Tanys Lancaster and Janet Loures filed charges with the government agency. Patricot and Loures are still working with the company but Lancaster has left.
A fourth Bloomberg employee, Monica Prestia, laid similar accusation on the company and filed a separated lawsuit stating that she was subjected to “harassment, hostile work environment and other forms of discrimination” after she became pregnant in February 2005.
The discriminations have allegedly come about after the founder of the company, Michael Bloomberg, became mayor of New York in 2002. Although he is still the major shareholder but according to company executives, he has not remained acutely involved with the company operations for quite sometime.
When asked about the lawsuit, Mayor Bloomberg said that he knew nothing about it. "You'll have to talk to Bloomberg LP," he said, using the company's full name. "I haven't worked there, as you know, in an awful long time."
The EEOC lawsuit seeks a permanent ruling on the company to keep it from discriminating on the basis of sex and pregnancy, and asks for back pay, compensation for lost pay, and unspecified penalizing damages.
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