Dollar General settles lawsuit claiming manager fired worker for being pregnant

Published

7 months ago

October 13, 2023

admin

Dollar General has agreed to cough up $42,500 to settle a lawsuit claiming a manager at a Georgia store fired a staffer “immediately” after finding out she was pregnant, and citing “health reasons” in her separation notice.

In September 2020, Calleigh Rutledge was working as a sales associate at a Dollar General in Baldwin, Ga., when she told the store manager that she was pregnant, according to a lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Georgia federal court last month.

“Immediately after learning of her pregnancy,” the manager said: “Since you are pregnant, you can no longer work here,” according to the EEOC, though Rutledge reportedly never requested maternity leave or suggested that she was unable to work during her employment.

Later that evening, the store manager called Rutledge to apologize for firing her, and said she would inquire about whether she could return to work for “light duty” at two hours per day the EEOC claimed in the court documents obtained by The Post.

The EEOC cited a text exchange between Rutledge and her manager, where the mother-to-be said she needed to work more than two hours per day in order to make enough money for her and her baby.

“Will that be safe? How many hrs are you thinking?” the manager replied, to which Rutledge said she wanted to keep her schedule the same throughout her pregnancy, the filing showed.

“Rutledge was never again placed on the work schedule,” according to the lawsuit, and just days after revealing her pregnancy, Rutledge received a separation notice stating her discharge was due to “health reasons.”

The EEOC shared that Dollar General agreed to settle the pregnancy discrimination lawsuit with $42,500 in a press release on Wednesday.

Of the sum, $29,750 will cover compensatory damages while $12,750 goes towards back pay damages.

It’s unclear if Rutledge sought to get her job back as a Dollar General cashier.

The federal agency also said Dollar General agreed to revise its anti-discrimination policies, provide annualtraining to its managers on Title VII — which protects employees from discrimination in the workplace — and allow the EEOC to monitor complaints of discrimination.

Representatives for Dollar General and the EEOC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The Tennessee-based discount chain hasn’t been having a good year so far.

Year-to-date, Dollar General’s share price has tanked nearly 60%, to $101.83, and it’s been getting slammed by retail theft and waning consumer demand.

The company warned Wall Street in August that its profits may plunge as much as 34% this fiscal year — compared to its previous forecast for an 8% decline — as it cut its full-year outlook for the second time.

Our revised guide is really a function of the slower transactions that were seeing, and higher expected shrink, Dollar General CFO Kelly Dilts said on a call with analysts after the company reported quarterly earnings that fell short of Wall Street estimates on Aug. 31.

The reference to shrink an industry term for stolen or damaged goods follows a troubling trend cited by other major retailers who have blamed the scourge of organized retail theft for impacting their bottom line.

UK

More human remains found in two locations as part of Salford torso inquiry

Published

2 hours ago

April 28, 2024

admin

More human remains found in two locations as part of Salford torso inquiry

More human remains have been found in two locations as part of an investigation that started when a man’s torso was discovered in Salford.

Police believe the torso belongs to a man in his 60s and have informed his family about his death, but have not yet identified him publicly.

In a news conference today, officers revealed the victim is believed to have known two men who are currently in custody. They are believed to have lived together.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes said they were looking at four crime scenes in Salford and the Greater Manchester area.

The human remains discovered over the last two days were found at Salford’s Blackleach Reservoir and Linnyshaw Colliery Wood.

Officers had already identified the two scenes before the remains were found and were “on route to the Colliery Wood” when a member of the public called to say they had found a package, said Det Supt Hughes.

Police officers found the other remains at the reservoir today while searching the area.

“We are very confident it is the same victim,” Det Supt Hughes added.

The victim is believed to have died in late March.

Police are searching a warehouse in Bury where “items were stored after this incident without the knowledge of occupants of that warehouse,” said Det Supt Hughes.

They’re also searching a house in Winton where the victim “was believed to have lived with the two men in custody”.

The first remains – consisting of the bottom of the back, buttocks and thigh – were found in clear plastic by a passer-by at Kersal Dale Wetlands in Salford, Greater Manchester, on 4 April.

Two men, aged 42 and 68, from Salford, who are believed to be known to each other, were arrested on suspicion of murder on 25 April, GMP said, after officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV footage.

The 42-year-old was arrested after officers stormed a bus in Eccles Old Road around midday, the force said.

The other man was later arrested at an address in Worsley Road.

A 20-year-old man previously arrested on suspicion of murder was later released on bail pending further inquiries.

“It is too soon to rule out [looking for other suspects] but we’re confident at this time that we have the right two suspects in custody,” said Det Supt Hughes.

Detectives are still appealing the public for any information related to the crime and want to hear from witnesses, including dog walkers, who were in the area between 6am and 6pm on the day a passer-by made the original grim discovery.

More than 100 officers searched the Kersal Dale area for 12 days looking for evidence, working with an underwater search team and dogs before lifting the crime scene on 17 April.

UK

Small boat migrant arrivals by late April at highest level ever

Published

3 hours ago

April 28, 2024

admin

Small boat migrant arrivals by late April at highest level ever

The number of migrants that have crossed the Channel in small boats during the first four months of the year is at its highest ever level.

Some 7,167 people have arrived on UK shores after travelling by small boat from the continent between 1 January to 27 April, with 902 entering just this past week

This compares to 5,745 for the same period last year. The previous record was 6,691 in 2022.

Politics latest: Key voter on Humza Yousaf’s future will make proposals to ‘help him out of a tight corner’

The figures come after Rishi Sunak has staked much of his political future on getting the number of migrant boat crossings down.

On Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme he said migrants travelling to Ireland after arriving in the UK on small boats was a sign the Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent.

“People are worried about coming here and that demonstrates exactly what I’m saying,” he told Sky News.

“If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay there, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”

However, the news that migrants are crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic has sparked an outcry in the country, and prompted the government in Dublin to announce they are planning emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to Britain.

More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.

Stopping the boats was one of the government’s five priorities set out by the prime minister after he took office in 2023.

The latest figures have been seized upon by Labour, with shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock saying: “This is the blunt reality behind all of Rishi Sunak’s empty boasts: more people have arrived by small boats so far this year than ever before and more people are having to be rescued.

“What will it take for Rishi Sunak to wake up and realise that his plan is not working?

“We desperately need a Labour government in place to get a grip of this issue.

“Our plan would strengthen Britain’s border security, crush the smuggling gangs, clear the asylum backlog, end hotel use, and set up a new returns and enforcement unit so those with no right to be in the UK are swiftly returned.”

Earlier this week, the prime minister said the government would “begin the process of removing those identified for the first flight” to Rwanda.

Mr Sunak said that they had increased detention spaces to 2,200 and had 200 caseworkers “ready and waiting” to process asylum claims.

He added that 25 courtrooms and 150 judges had been provided to deal with any legal cases quickly.

Technology

How working for Big Tech lost ‘dream job’ status

Published

3 hours ago

April 28, 2024

admin

Despite blockbuster earnings from giants such as Alphabet and Microsoft, layoffs continue to ripple through the tech industry.

Layoffs.fyi, a platform monitoring job cuts in the tech sector, recorded more than 263,000 job losses in 2023 alone. As of April, there have been more than 75,000 job losses in the industry so far in 2024.

“So instead of rewarding the growth that we saw [tech companies] all pursue years ago, they’re now rewarding profit,” said Jeff Shulman, professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “And so the layoffs have continued. People have become used to them. Regrettably and sadly, it seems that the layoffs are going to be the new normal.”

Even though mass tech layoffs continue, the labor market still seems strong. The U.S. economy added 303,000 jobs in March, well above the Dow Jones estimate for a rise of 200,000, with the unemployment rate edged lower to 3.8%.

According to Handshake, a popular free job posting site for college students and graduates, the tech layoffs have prompted new workers to seek other opportunities. The share of job applications from tech majors submitted to internet and software companies dropped by more than 30% between November 2021 and September 2023.

“Part of the reason why this is happening is because stability is such a major factor in students’ decisions around what types of jobs they apply to and what types of jobs they accept,” said Christine Cruzverga, chief education strategy officer at Handshake. “They’re looking at the headlines in the news and they’re paying attention to all of the layoffs that are happening in Big Tech, and that makes them feel unstable.”

Mass layoffs have eroded the shine of the tech industry, which is why workers are questioning whether getting a job in the tech industry should still be regarded as a “dream job.”

“For the people who are chasing … a tech dream job, I think keep your options open and be realistic,” said Eric Tolotti, senior partner engineer at Snowflake, who got laid off from Microsoft in 2023. “Don’t just focus on one company and feel like you have to get into that one company because it’s the dream.”

Watch the video to learn about tech workers’ sentiments, considerations for aspiring Big Tech employees, and more.