ST. LOUIS – A recent lawsuit filed in St. Louis County by Dashtaki Law Firm, LLC alleges that World Wide Technology, LLC (WWT) violated the Missouri Human Rights Act when it offered a qualified candidate a job, but then rescinded the offer after the candidate disclosed her pregnancy.
The Plaintiff had been coordinating with a senior recruiter for WWT throughout July, August, and September 2020, and advanced through three rounds of interviews with eight different WWT employees before WWT offered her a Software Quality Engineer position on October 8, 2020.
The next morning the Plaintiff was supposed to meet with WWT managers to discuss salary and benefit information and select a November start date. A few minutes before the meeting began, the Plaintiff informed WWT’s recruiter that she was pregnant. The recruiter immediately canceled the meeting and rescinded the job offer, explaining that WWT didn’t believe that she would be able to complete the mandatory training and begin working on projects before the baby arrived.
The Plaintiff offered to start working immediately, work until the baby arrived, and then take minimal time off (one month) for parental leave, but the recruiter insisted that WWT would not accommodate her due date, that returning to work one month after the baby’s arrival was a “rush,” and was concerned that Plaintiff would not be “ready to work.” WWT later updated the online application portal to indicate that the Plaintiff was denied the job because her “background was not a match for the requirements” of the Software Quality Engineer position. The WWT recruiter told the Plaintiff to reapply after the baby arrived, but ignored the Plaintiff’s multiple applications for similar positions in December 2020 and January 2021.
The Missouri Human Rights Act makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate on the basis of sex (pregnancy). The lawsuit alleges that WWT does not take anticipated parental leave into account when making hiring decisions about male candidates, and that WWT doesn’t ignore job applications from male parents of newborn children.
The Plaintiff’s attorney, Cyrus Dashtaki, said, “Working moms should not lose employment opportunities because of pregnancy. It is unacceptable for an employer to consider pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions when making hiring decisions.” Dashtaki added, “Pregnancy discrimination is a serious problem in the workplace. The outdated and sexist stereotypes that female parents are not “ready to work” after a baby arrives — or that it would be “a rush” to return after the baby’s arrival — is nothing more than bias and prejudice against working moms.”
Dashtaki Law Firm, LLC exclusively represents employees standing up against employment discrimination based on age, race, sex, religion, national origin or disability. Please visit www.Dashtaki.com for more information.