The entity that oversees business operations for The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit brought by a former advertising executive.
The Denver Newspaper Agency, which handles business operations for both newspapers, along with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, filed the settlement agreement Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
In addition to the payment, the agency agreed to conduct training for its managers and employees about gender and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. The agency must also make periodic reports to the EEOC.
The suit, filed in 2004, stemmed from the dismissal of Karen Stenvall, an advertising manager fired by the agency in 2001 when she was six months pregnant. Stenvall was fired despite receiving glowing performance reviews and earning a raise of more than $9,000 during the year before her dismissal, according to the EEOC.
“This termination did not make sense,” Mary Jo O’Neil, a regional attorney for the EEOC, said in a statement. “Women should never be forced to choose between motherhood and their livelihood.”
Jim Nolan, a spokesman for the Denver Newspaper Agency, declined to comment on the settlement Monday.
