California Light Bulb Maker Paying $100K for Firing Pregnant Worker

A California lightbulb manufacturer is paying $100,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit.

Feit Electric Inc., a lightbulb manufacturer based in Los Angeles, must pay $100,000 and provide other relief to settle the pregnancy discrimination suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Workforce provider Eastridge Workforce Solutions assigned a female employee to work at Feit Electric at its Pico Rivera, California warehouse, and she was later discharged because of her pregnancy, according to the EEOC.

The alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. The EEOC says it filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement.

This settlement, combined with the separate consent decree between the EEOC and Eastridge Workforce Solutions for $185,000 and injunctive relief remedies, brings the total settlement amount to $285,000.

In addition to paying the $100,000 to the former employee, the three-year consent decree resolving this portion of the case requires Feit Electric to retain an equal employment opportunity monitor, and to revise its discrimination policies to include acknowledgement of the many types of available and appropriate pregnancy-related accommodations.