A former worker, Doris Garcia Hernandez, charged she was sacked by Chipotle because she became pregnant – and a Washington, DC, jury recently agreed, awarding her $550,000 in her pregnancy discrimination case.
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David also denied Hernandez’s requests to leave work early for a doctor’s appointment. Hernandez chose to leave anyway which lead her to be fired publicly in front of other employees and customers the following day. Following the disclosure of her pregnancy, Hernandez claims he began restricting her water and bathroom breaks. More recently, this year a jury in Cincinnati ruled in favor of three women – former general managers at three stores – awarding them $600,000 in damages for wrongful termination in 2011 and 2012 based on their gender.
A jury found that a manager at a Chipotle in Washington D.C. discriminated against a pregnant employee.
Only 4 percent of food service workers receive any sort of paid family leave, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics.
Under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, employers are forbidden to factor a woman’s pregnancy into “hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance, and any other term or condition of employment”.
National advocates took an interest in this case. Additionally, the act forbids employers from creating a hostile work environment for a pregnant woman.
The jury in the case awarded Hernandez with $550,000 in compensation and damages.
“The Chipotle case shed light on why the act was needed”, said Manny Geraldo, Orange’s spokesman. “That case was a catalyst for us to study the idea and take a harder look at some of the discrimination that pregnant women face”. One manager allegedly “would consistently order her work uniforms several sizes too small”, according to Eater, while another “would forcibly try to hug her and place his hands under her shirt on her back and stomach after touching a cold surface”. It doesn’t stop with pregnancy, though, codifying that employers have to provide private space to breast feed, and, when medically necessary, they are required to give new mothers time off to recover from childbirth.
A former Chipotle worker is looking forward to a big payout from her past employer. The act went into effect last March.
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“[He] did not impose these requirements on non-pregnant employees”, the original lawsuit stated, according to the Washington Business Journal. Harassing an employee for using the bathroom and publically firing her for going to a doctor’s appointment did not meet this standard in the eyes of the jury. In February, a federal grand jury in Cincinnati, Ohio, ordered the company to pay almost $200,000 each to three former general managers who accused their supervisors of gender discrimination culminating in the unjust termination.
