Nearly 60 Women Claim Pregnancy Discrimination at Bloomberg

May 1, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - There are now 58 women who claim they suffered employment discrimination by Bloomberg L.P. when they became pregnant and took maternity leave.

Reuters reports that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawyer Raechel Adams told a federal judge at a pre-trial hearing that the women said their duties were reduced or that they had been excluded from employment opportunities due to their pregnancies. The EEOC originally filed the lawsuit in September on behalf of three senior level female employees (See EEOC Charges Bloomberg with Sexual Discrimination ).

Adams said the EEOC sent questionnaires to 478 women employed by Bloomberg L.P. who had taken a maternity leave since 2002, and the class of affected employees will likely grow as the agency is still conducting follow-up interviews with the women. According to Reuters, the lawsuit claims the company discriminated against pregnant employees by cutting their pay and demoting them and that when they returned from maternity leave they were paid less and demoted and replaced by less senior male employees.

Bloomberg lawyer, Anna Aquilar, told the judge that the firm had given the EEOC more than one million pages of data related to employees over the last 10 years and would also hand over e-mails.

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