Ford refused to let pregnant woman start her new job, feds say. Now company must pay
A pregnant woman received a job offer from Ford Motor Company but wasn’t allowed to start, federal authorities in Illinois said in a lawsuit. Now, the company must pay.
A woman applied for a job at Ford Motor Company’s stamping plant in Chicago Heights and received a job offer conditional on passing a physical, drug test, and background check, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The woman passed all three, and, during her physical, told Ford’s doctor she was pregnant, the EEOC said. Ford’s doctor cleared her for work on Aug. 13, 2019, but the company never scheduled her first day of work, the complaint says.
An attorney for Ford told McClatchy News on Nov. 10 that “Ford is an equal opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination against applicants and employees on the basis of pregnancy and are firmly committed to our anti-discrimination policies and to diversity and inclusion. Ford unequivocally denies that it refused to hire (the woman) because she was pregnant. Ford chose to voluntarily resolve this matter without any admission of liability with the EEOC to avoid expending additional time, expense, and resources.”
The pregnant woman called repeatedly and, in October 2019, was told that Ford was “no longer hiring,” the EEOC said. Simultaneously, other new hires had orientation and began their new jobs.
The EEOC filed a lawsuit against Ford in September 2021 on the woman’s behalf, arguing that the company discriminated against the woman because of her pregnancy, the complaint says.
Ford denied discriminating against the woman and agreed to settle the lawsuit, according to a consent decree filed by a judge on Nov. 1, 2022.
Ford agreed to pay the woman $115,000 for back pay and damages, the settlement said. The company also agreed to a series of actions intended to prevent pregnancy discrimination from occurring at the stamping plant in Chicago Heights.
This included requiring Ford to conduct anti-discrimination training for hiring personnel, adopt policies that promote equal opportunity employment, and report all complaints of pregnancy discrimination, the EEOC said in a Nov. 4 news release. The judge also prohibited Ford from requiring more medical documentation from pregnant employees than non-pregnant employees.
An attorney for the EEOC, Greg Gochanour, said in the release, “Federal law does not allow employers to make pregnancy a barrier to employment. The EEOC is committed to vigorously enforcing pregnancy discrimination laws and eradicating discriminatory treatment of pregnant employees.”
Chicago Heights is about 25 miles south of Chicago.
This story was originally published November 7, 2022 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Ford refused to let pregnant woman start her new job, feds say. Now company must pay."
