Allsup's to pay nearly $1 million in damages

Allsup’s will play close to $1 million in damages to 28 women as part of a pregnancy and disability discrimination lawsuit settled Monday in court, according to a press release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC filed the suit Sept. 28, 2015, in a federal district court in Albuquerque, alleging that “Allsup’s managers and area supervisors subjected pregnant employees to different working conditions because of their pregnancies and/or their pregnancy-related disabilities.”

An EEOC lawyer supervising the trial could not confirm Monday if any of the women involved in the suit had worked at Allsup’s locations in Clovis or Portales, but said a few of the plaintiffs came from Roswell and Ruidoso.

In addition to distributing $950,000 during a three-year consent decree, the company must also give offers of re-employment and letters of reference to the affected women.

The company must also “implement policies and practices that will provide its employees a workplace free of discrimination,” including training on preventing disability and pregnancy-related discrimination for its clerks, managers, area supervisors and human resources staff.

“Basically, all of the provisions of the decree apply to all the Allsup’s stores,” said EEOC Supervisory Trial Attorney Loretta Medina.

A representative of Clovis’ corporate office did not immediately respond Monday to a request for comment.