Maine gubernatorial candidate settled sex discrimination complaint

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — Shawn Moody has made his difficult upbringing and success in business the twin pillars of his campaign to become Maine’s next governor, boasting in commercials, debates and speeches about how he built his automobile repair stores from scratch after he was raised by a single mother.

“I would put my record up against anyone about knowing how to grow a successful business,” said Moody, the Republican nominee in one of the country’s most competitive races for governor.

But for Jill Hayward, herself a single mother, there is nothing quite as painful as seeing Moody appear on television recounting how he overcame childhood hardship to make Moody’s Collision Centers into a multimillion-dollar regional powerhouse.

In 2006, Hayward, a former member of management at a Moody’s store, filed a sexual discrimination complaint against Moody with the Maine Human Rights Commission, accusing him of firing her because he did not think she was up to the job after giving birth to her son. “I want to see you grow,” he told her, according to the previously undisclosed complaint, but with her new parental obligations, “I’m not sure that you can do that in this job.” Moody ultimately settled the complaint and, she said, paid her around $20,000.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2018/10/12/maine-gubernatorial-candidate-settled-sex-discrimination-complaint/1fmojFbqnZv3EyELhjoefL/story.html

Moody is the Republican gubernatorial candidate.