An hour after Yaire Lopez told her boss that she was pregnant and had been advised by her doctor to limit her lifting and climbing activities at work, she was placed on leave - and eventually fired.
A San Francisco jury determined in 2007 that Bimbo Bakeries USA had engaged in gender and pregnancy discrimination, violating the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. It awarded Lopez $340,700 for losses and damages, plus another $2 million in punitive damages, and more than $1 million in attorneys fees. Two years later, the verdict was affirmed on appeal (
Lopez v. Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc., 2009 WL 1090375).
Lopez's case is among the increasingly high awards given in recent years to workers who file discrimination claims related to their responsibilities as parents or to care for aging parents.
The Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings has been studying the trend for a decade and documented an almost 400 percent increase in the number of lawsuits that have been filed. Its 2006 report on 613 caregiver discrimination suits in the United States showed an average award of about $100,000. Four years later the average settlement had risen to more than $500,000.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), in 1997 the agency received close to 4,000 administrative complaints alleging pregnancy discrimination, which resulted in $5.6 million in out-of-court settlements; 13 years later roughly 6,000 complaints yielded $18 million.
Michele Miller, a shareholder at San Francisco's Miller Law Group, says she increasingly spends time advising in-house attorneys on family responsibility discrimination policies and procedures that will help companies avoid such claims.
"It is important for management to understand how stereotypes can adversely influence the workplace and how important it is to avoid bringing the biases to bear on their workplace decisions," says Miller. As examples, she cites the "belief that a young mother will not be able to travel or work nights or a single father will not work as hard or is less committed if he takes time off to care for an elderly parent."
Caregiver discrimination cases can be filed under an array of laws and statutes, including gender and pregnancy discrimination under federal and state law, as well as under the Family and Medical Leave Act or Americans with Disabilities Act. Miller says some states are now adopting their own laws drafted specifically to protect caregivers in the workplace.
Kari Santos
Daily Journal Staff Writer
