Workforce Management
August 13, 2010
Filed by Judy Greenwald of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.
After Heather Spees’ doctor said she needed bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy, she was terminated and told the reason was ‘for being pregnant,’ according to the opinion.
A pregnant welder who was transferred from her job can pursue pregnancy discrimination and Americans with Disabilities Act claims, a divided federal appeals court has ruled in largely overturning a lower court decision.
However, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld the lower court’s ruling in Heather Spees v. James Marine Inc. and JamesBuilt L.L.C. that dismissed Spees’ claim that her subsequent termination also constituted pregnancy discrimination.
According to the 2-1 ruling Tuesday, August 10, Spees was hired in 2007 to work as a welder at Paducah, Kentucky-based JMI’s JamesBuilt facility, which focuses largely on building deck and tank barges, towboats and dry docks for the river-shipping industry. At the time, only four of JMI’s 935 nonoffice positions were female and Spees was the only female assigned to the JamesBuilt facility.
Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/27/30/48.php
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