Maine gubernatorial candidate, Shawn Moody, reportedly settled a sexual discrimination complaint in 2006 with one of his automobile repair store’s former employees.
The New York Times reports that the Republican candidate, who boasts in his campaign how he started his business from scratch after being raised from a single mother, agreed to pay a woman $20,000 to settle the complaint.
Maine resident Jill Hayward, 44, filed the complaint in 2006 with the Maine Human Rights Commission and alleged she was fired by Moody for being a single mother.
Hayward, a former member of management at one of his stores, said that Moody visited her apartment in November 2005 while she was on maternity leave following an emergency C-section. She told the Times it was then when he told her she was being fired because he did not believe she could continue her job with her new role as a mother.
Moody refrained from commenting on the settlement and only confirmed that the two had reached an agreement, according to the report.
The gubernatorial candidate reportedly said that termination from his stores includes a multi-step process involving many people in its decision. He also said that terminations take place at the stores where employees work, and not in private.
Public documents obtained by the New York Times state that only about 25 of Moody’s 200 employees are women.
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Moody is competing against the state's Democratic attorney general, Janet Mills, to succeed outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
