EEOC Sues Intertwined Real Estate Companies for Pregnancy Discrimination

NEW YORK – St. Charles Housing, LP, Menowitz Management Corp., and Rental Assistance II, Inc., doing business as Apartment Corp., interrelated companies that own and manage residential and commercial properties throughout the country, fired a female property manager just days after she told her supervisor she was pregnant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, the employee, who managed one of defendant’s properties in Lake Charles, Louisiana for five months, learned she was pregnant and informed her supervisor, intending to remain in her job during her pregnancy. Her supervisor started openly questioning her ability to do her work while pregnant, even though she had no medical restrictions. Less than a week after she told her supervisor she was pregnant, the employee saw a posting for her job on Indeed.com. When she confronted her supervisor about the ad, the supervisor said the owners of the companies and her agreed she would not be able to perform her job “in her condition” and fired her.

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of pregnancy.

The EEOC filed suit in the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of New York, where two of the three interrelated companies are located, after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process. The EEOC seeks compensatory damages and punitive damages for the affected employee, and injunctive relief to remedy and prevent future discrimination based on pregnancy.

“No one should lose a job because of pregnancy,” said Renay Oliver, a trial attorney in the EEOC’s New York District Office, who will litigate this case with assistant regional attorney Nora Curtin. “Federal law makes clear employees cannot be terminated from their jobs based on unfounded stereotypes about what they can and can’t do while pregnant.”

“It is long past the day when employers can force female workers to choose between motherhood and employment,” said Timothy Riera, acting director of the New York District Office. “The EEOC is committed to enforcing all federal laws prohibiting pregnancy discrimination in employment, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the recently-enacted Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).”

The EEOC’s New York District Office is responsible for processing discrimination charges, administrative enforcement, and the conduct of agency litigation in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, northern New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

For more information about pregnancy discrimination, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination. For more information about the PWFA, visit https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/pregnant-workers-fairness-act.

The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.