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Pregnancy Bias Case Settled with EEOC by Catholic Healthcare West
September 30, 2008
LOS ANGELES -- Hospital operator Catholic Healthcare West has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to resolve claims that one of its hospitals discriminated against pregnant workers by limiting the procedures on which they were allowed to work.
Judge Dean D. Pregerson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California signed off on the decree that has CHW’s Northridge Hospital Medical Center paying $155,000 in compensatory damages to the plaintiffs and implementing new policies and training to prevent pregnancy discrimination in the future.
The consent decree comes after the judge determined in January that Northridge Hospital’s policy barring pregnant personnel from partaking in high-intensity radiation procedures was discriminatory and violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
The Northridge, Calif.-based hospital had a policy in place from January 1998 to April 2005 that required all pregnant employees to immediately report pregnancy status to their director and prohibited them from taking part in the procedures due to the fetus' possible exposure of radiation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has roundly rejected fetal safety as a defense to policies that facially discriminate on the basis of pregnancy, the California district court said in January. In addition to providing monetary relief under the consent decree, Northridge Hospital has agreed to ensure Title VII training for its managers and employees involved in duties that expose them to radiation and to provide a procedure for handling complaints of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace.
The court noted in January that the parties’ experts said a pregnant woman did not have to be removed from these procedures because the radiation dose at issue was below regulatory limits. Plaintiff Avril Betoushana worked as a radiology technologist at Northridge Hospital’s cardiac catheterization laboratory, which provides high-radiation procedures, known as fluoroscopy, for patients who need diagnostic and interventional cardiac care, until August 2004 when she told her director that she was pregnant.
She was then transferred to work in the radiology department until she went on maternity leave. The transfer prompted Betoushana to file a sex discrimination charge against Northridge Hospital with the EEOC in August 2005. The EEOC filed suit in March 2006 on behalf of Betoushana and those similarly situated.
The only other class member was Diana Girard-Simone, who worked as a registered nurse in the cardiac catheterization laboratory from 1998 until 2005. She became pregnant three times, and each time was only allowed to perform monitoring duties in the lab based on the hospital’s policies. The court found in January that the hospital engaged in a pattern or practice of sex discrimination because the policy’s language clearly classified pregnant women in a manner that would deprive them of employment in a fluoroscopy lab.
The decree, which will remain in effect for nearly three years, also requires the hospital to post notice to employees whose duties expose them to radiation and allows the EEOC to appoint a consultant to monitor the hospital’s compliance with Title VII and the decree.
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