BALTIMORE (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced Feb. 23 that Life Time Fitness Inc., a gym company based in Minnesota, will pay $86,000 and furnish significant relief after allegations of rescinding a job offer due to pregnancy.
"Rescinding a job offer to a qualified applicant, even if you tell her she can reapply for another position after she has the baby, is still illegal pregnancy discrimination," said EEOC Philadelphia District director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr.
According to the EEOC, Emily Carpenter was told to come in for new hire paperwork after two interviews at a Life Time Fitness in Rockville, Maryland. Carpenter sent the gym an email with her work schedule and also noted she was 35 weeks pregnant. Life Time Fitness purportedly failed to schedule a time and stopped communicating with her at all.
Two weeks later, a manager at the company allegedly informed Carpenter that her position had been placed on hold and that two other people had been hired. She was told to reapply for a position later in the year.
"Unfortunately too many women still experience pregnancy discrimination in the workplace,” said EEOC regional attorney Debra M. Lawrence. “We are pleased that this settlement corrected this situation by providing monetary compensation to Carpenter, as well as other measures that will protect other women and applicants from sex or pregnancy discrimination."