Benefits March 22, 2010

Charter School Operator Settles Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit

March 22, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Imagine Schools, Inc., a nationwide operator of charter schools, will pay $570,000 to settle a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
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According to an EEOC announcement, the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri charged that Imagine Schools discriminated when it chose not to retain two pregnant employees after closing its charter middle school in Kansas City, Missouri, and opening a private middle and high school, Renaissance Academy, at the same location. The lawsuit claimed that the company did not rehire LuShonda Smith, an office manager, and Charity Brooks, an administrative assistant, to work at the new school because they were pregnant.      

In addition to requiring $570,000 in back pay, emotional distress damages, and attorneys’ fees, the two-year consent decree, which must be approved by the court, requires the nationwide charter school company to disseminate a policy on pregnancy discrimination, provide management training on such discrimination, report internal discrimination complaints to the EEOC, and prominently post a notice regarding employee rights under federal anti-discrimination laws enforced by the agency.      

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According to the company Web site, Imagine Schools, based in Arlington, Virginia, operates more than 70 charter schools in 12 states.      

The announcement said pregnancy discrimination charges filed with the EEOC and state and local Fair Employment Practices Agencies rose from 4,160 in Fiscal Year 2000 to 6,196 in FY 2009.
Deals and People March 22, 2010

Growth Opportunities Lead to Personnel Changes at Mercer

March 22, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Mercer has announced several investment consulting executive appointments aimed at taking leadership of the Asia Pacific region and global manager research boutiques businesses forward.
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Simon Eagleton has been appointed Asia Pacific investment consulting regional business leader. In this role he will build upon Mercer’s investment consulting presence in growth markets such as Greater China, India, Singapore, and Korea, and will expand Mercer’s global services such as Mercer Sentineland Mercer’s global manager research boutiques, according to the announcement.       

Eagleton has served as the investment consulting business leader for Australia/New Zealand for the last four years.He will retain that role for the immediate future and will relocate to Singapore later this year.       

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Eagleton joins the Investment Consulting Leadership Team (ICLT) that oversees the global investment consulting business.      

Eagleton succeeds Tony Cole, who is taking on a new role centered on key client consulting, intellectual capital thought leadership, and representing Mercer with government and other agencies in the Asia Pacific region. He continues as a member of the ICLT.      

Mercer also announced that Anthony Lane, regional chief operating officer for investment consulting in Asia Pacific, will assume the role of leader of Mercer’s global manager research boutiques business, one of the fastest growing areas of investment consulting at Mercer. Lane assumes the role from Jeff Schutes, theleader of Mercer’s US investment consulting business.

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