H.C. Employees, LLC doing business as Home Creations, a homebuilder operating in Oklahoma and Texas, violated federal law when it fired an employee because of her pregnancy, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, Home Creations’ sales director and sales manager made repeated comments reflecting bias against pregnant sales staff, cautioning female employees not to “drink the water” because women “get pregnant and leave.” When Home Creations learned in the fall of 2023 that a new sales employee in the Oklahoma City area was pregnant near the end of her 90-day “introductory period,” they terminated her less than two weeks later. Although Home Creations said her termination was for policy violations, including low home sales, the company previously told her she was doing a good job and it retained a male probationary sales employee with similar tenure and performance…