A company operating at Aberdeen Proving Ground has agreed to pay more than $81,000 to two women for firing them while they were pregnant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday.
The EEOC had filed suit against SoBran Inc., a federal contractor providing technical, management and operation support services at APG.
In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore, the EEOC alleged the company fired Crystal Hinshaw, a support technician specialist, when she informed the company of her pregnancy on July 18, 2006.
Hinshaw will receive $59,100 in back pay and compensatory damages.
The EEOC?s investigation revealed that another woman, who wasn?t named in the agency?s statement, also had been forced to resign when she became pregnant; that former employee will receive back pay of $22,600, according to the government agency.
A spokeswoman for SoBran did not return a reporter?s phone calls seeking comment. The technical and professional services government contractor has 15 offices and operations in 11 states, according to the company?s Web site.
“Pregnant employees must be permitted to work as long as they are able to do their jobs,” EEOC Regional Attorney Jacqueline NcNair said in the statement. “The EEOC has seen a dramatic increase in pregnancy discrimination claims since the early 1990s.”
According to the agency, pregnancy discrimination charge filings with EEOC as well as state and local agencies nationwide increased by 14 percent in the past fiscal year to a record high of 5,587 ? up from 4,901 filings in 2006, and up 65 percent from 3,385 filings in 1992.
