MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal agency that accused a Milwaukee medical-staffing company of firing a woman who had just given birth says the company has been ordered to pay $148,000.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had filed suit against HCS Medical Staffing Inc.
The agency says HCS’s owner made offensive comments about his bookkeeper’s pregnancy, and then fired her because she needed to take maternity leave.
A federal judge ordered the owner to pay the woman back pay plus interest, along with compensatory and punitive damages.
Prosecutors say the owner accused her of using pre-natal appointments as an excuse for time off, and he fired her by certified mail while she was in the hospital recovering from a Caesarean section.
A woman who answered the phone for HCS Saturday declined to comment.
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