Bourne’s House Sued by EEOC For Pregnancy Discrimination

Bourne’s House Restaurant violated the pregnancy discrimination law when it fired and then later refused to rehire a worker because she was pregnant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed in Louisiana federal court.

According to the EEOC’s discrimination lawsuit, a manager at the Franklinton, Louisiana, restaurant fired the newly-hired worker after sending her social media message saying, “I’m not gonna be able to hire you. I didn’t realize that you were expecting a baby.” When the worker reapplied for work several months later, Bourne’s House wrote “pregnant” on her application and did not rehire her.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if 1964, which prohibits pregnancy- related discrimination. The EEOC filed the discrimination lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. After first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its voluntary conciliation process.

“Pregnant workers are entitled to the same opportunities as all the other workers,” said an EEOC attorney. The EEOC’s director of the New Orleans Field Office, said, “it is awful for an employer to fire an employee simply because she is pregnant. An employer cannot make assumptions about what a pregnant worker can or cannot do.”