US Agency Agrees to $45 Million Settlement After Alleged Discrimination Against Pregnant Workers

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has agreed to pay $45 million to settle a lawsuit brought by pregnant employees, according to lawyers for the workers. Attorneys representing more than 1,000 pregnant CBP employees hammered out the settlement, which includes the presumption moving forward that pregnant workers can keep serving in their position, lawyers with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll said. CBP regularly reassigned officers and agriculture specialists to light duty after learning of their pregnancies instead of letting them continue doing their jobs, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. “Announcing my pregnancy to my colleagues and supervisor should have been a happy occasion—but it quickly became clear that such news was not welcome. The assumption was that I could no longer effectively do my job, just because I was pregnant,” Roberta Gabaldon, lead plaintiff in the case, said in a statement. “It was traumatizing, frustrating, and demoralizing,”...