PAID $60,000 TO BUY PEACE
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claimed that Medsurant Holdings – a “Pennsylvania-based healthcare services company” – engaged in sex discrimination because it paid its female "intraoperative neurophysiology monitorists," less than their male counterparts for performing the same work.
When an employee complained about the discrepancy, she was subject to retaliation and was “constructively” discharged.
Believing that such conduct violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (EEOC v. Medsurant Holdings, LLC et al.., Case No.3:23-cv-00501), seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
In a recently announced settlement of that dispute, Medsurant agreed to pay $80,000 to the impacted individual and further agreed to improve its employment related policies and practices.
In a written statement, Debra Lawrence, regional attorney in the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, said, “Employers should be proactively reviewing their own compensation systems for sex-based disparities, and they cannot punish an employee for raising equal pay concerns.”
Medsurant needed to be a lot more measured.
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