Happy Days Children’s Wear
Happy Days Children's Wear
Chapter 7: Lessons Learned from Companies Caught in the Act
Posted by Dawn Lomer on July 25th, 2011
Chapter 3: Tyco and Hewlett-Packard
Chapter 4: Johnson & Johnson and Mattel
Chapter 6: International Monetary Fund and Verizon
Chapter 7: Happy Days Children’s Wear
Happy Days Children’s Wear Inc.
Fine/Settlement: $22,500
Happy Days Children’s Wear Inc. is a small children’s shop inNew York. Its manager dismissed a female employee of seven years because she was pregnant. Although the manager gave other reasons for the dismissal, the EEOC felt that the reasons weren’t consistent or plausible.
While the dollar value of the settlement with the EEOC might seem small, it was significant for the size of the business.
Lessons Learned
- Anti-discrimination training
- Pregnant women are a protected class, making it illegal to discriminate against an expecting employee.
- HR policies and training
- When terminating an employee, provide him or her with concrete examples of the actions that led to the decision. To do this, employers and supervisors must keep an updated written record of employee incidents or misconduct. This serves as evidence, if a lawsuit is filed, that the employee was terminated for just cause.
- It is also important to perform and document regular employee evaluations so that any feedback that employees have been given are recorded. This could provide a defense in the case of a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
