EEOC Targets Pregnancy Discrimination: What HR Should Know

Heads up, HR: The EEOC has recently taken several employers to task for alleged pregnancy discrimination in violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).

In early September, the agency filed its first-ever PWFA lawsuit and negotiated its first successful conciliation agreement to resolve a PWFA charge, recovering more than $47,000 for the affected employee. And it’s not stopping there. 

The EEOC has already filed two more PWFA lawsuits.

Here’s what’s happening – and how you can avoid a similar mistake.

Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace Examples

EEOC Files First-Ever PWFA Lawsuit

On Sept. 10, the EEOC filed the first federal lawsuit alleging a PWFA violation. 

The suit alleges Wabash National Corporation, a national producer of semi-trailers and other commercial trucking equipment, violated the PWFA by:

• failing to provide pregnancy-related accommodation to an employee who worked as an assembler, and
• subjecting her to an unlawful medical inquiry.

Specifically, the EEOC asserted that Wabash denied the employee’s request to transfer to a role that did not require lying on her stomach and refused to engage in the interactive process to explore other possible accommodations.

The company also unlawfully required medical documentation and then forced the employee to take unpaid leave, the EEOC claimed.

Wabash’s decision to deny the accommodation request caused the employee to fear for the health of her pregnancy, the EEOC said, which led her to resign. This meant she was essentially forced to resign when she was nearly eight months pregnant, the EEOC concluded.

In the EEOC’s view, the alleged conduct amounted to pregnancy discrimination in violation of PWFA. It also violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, the EEOC concluded. The agency filed a federal lawsuit in Kentucky after attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through the agency’s conciliation process.

“The PWFA provides critical protections for employees who are too often pushed out of the workforce because of pregnancy, childbirth or related needs,” Kenneth L. Bird, the EEOC’s regional attorney in Indianapolis, said in a press release. “This case will educate the public about those protections and help to ensure that employers heed them.”

First PWFA Settlement: Company Pays More Than $47K

On Sept. 11, ABC Pest Control, Inc., a pest control services provider in Florida, agreed to pay $47,480 in damages to resolve a pregnancy accommodation charge, the EEOC announced.

The charge claimed ABC Pest Control fired a pregnant employee after she requested a reasonable accommodation to attend monthly medical appointments for her pregnancy. That’s when the woman filed a pregnancy discrimination charge with the EEOC.

In the EEOC’s view, the company’s decision to fire the employee violated the PWFA. The company entered into a conciliation agreement to reach a pre-litigation settlement.

“We appreciate ABC Pest Control’s willingness to take steps to provide accommodations to pregnant employees,” Melissa Castillo, systemic coordinator and trial attorney for the EEOC’s Miami District, said in a statement. “With the training and policy changes implemented by the company, we are confident that going forward, pregnant employees will be able to request and obtain reasonable accommodations.”

Under the agreement, ABC Pest Control agreed to pay $47,480 in damages to the former employee. It also agreed to:

• appoint an EEO coordinator
• revise its employment policies to include making reasonable accommodations under the PWFA
• provide training to both management and non-management employees on pregnancy discrimination, and 
• submit quarterly reports on requests for accommodations and complaints of pregnancy discrimination.

EEOC Files 2 More Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuits

In two pregnancy discrimination lawsuits filed at the end of last month, the EEOC takes companies to task for allegedly violating the PWFA.

Alleged Pregnancy Discrimination in Alabama

In one lawsuit, the agency asserted Polaris Industries, a manufacturing company in Alabama, refused to excuse an employee’s absences for pregnancy-related conditions and medical appointments. It also required the employee to work mandatory overtime despite knowing that her physician had restricted her from working over 40 hours per week during her pregnancy, the EEOC claimed.

Further, the company assessed attendance points against the employee for pregnancy-related absences and warned her that she would be fired if she acquired another point. The employee resigned to protect her pregnancy and filed a complaint with the EEOC.

In the EEOC’s view, the alleged conduct amounted to pregnancy discrimination in violation of the PWFA. The agency filed a lawsuit on the woman’s behalf. The case is EEOC v. Polaris Industries, Inc.

Oklahoma Employer Faces Pregnancy Discrimination Suit

The second lawsuit alleges a specialty medical practice in Oklahoma engaged in pregnancy discrimination by refusing to let a pregnant medical assistant sit, take breaks, or work part-time, even though the woman’s doctor said the accommodations were needed to protect the worker’s health and safety during the final trimester of her high-risk pregnancy. 

Instead, the practice forced the employee to take unpaid leave and refused to guarantee she would have breaks to express breastmilk, the suit asserted. When the employee refused to return to work without those guaranteed breaks, the practice fired her. So she filed a pregnancy discrimination complaint.

The EEOC filed suit on her behalf. The case is EEOC v. Urologic Specialists of Oklahoma, Inc.

What is the PWFA?

As you probably recall, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect in June 2023 – so it’s a relatively new federal law. 

Here’s a quick recap: Under the law, employers with 15 or more employees must engage in the interactive process with qualified employees (and applicants) and make reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions — as long as the accommodations do not pose an undue hardship on the employer.

Best Practices for HR

Employment law can even be tricky for HR pros, so it’s not surprising that managers occasionally get tripped up when new legal matters come into play. Just like managers need FMLA training, now they also need PWFA training.

Simply put, manager training is the first line of defense to help protect your company from lawsuits. 

And it doesn’t have to be overly complicated. Generally, managers should be trained to:

• Get HR involved: Supervisors should bring HR into the conversation when they learn an employee is pregnant or when a pregnant employee makes any kind of accommodation request. They should be encouraged to reach out to HR for help handling pregnancy-related requests.
• Keep emotions in check: Managers should be trained to check their emotions at the door. They should know not to make stray comments – like grumbling about accommodations – that could cause legal headaches.
• Keep things confidential: The very nature of pregnancy means that an employee’s condition will eventually become obvious. Even so, that doesn’t mean managers have carte blanche to discuss an employee’s medical condition or accommodation.

What else can you do? Employment attorney Joyce Collier recommends that employers add a PWFA accommodation policy to their handbook. “The handbook should have an actual form that an employee can submit to HR,” Collier told Voices of HR host Berta Aldrich.

What about possible accommodations? What do they look like? The EEOC outlined four accommodations that are almost always reasonable under the PWFA. They are:

1. Allowing an employee to carry water and drink, as needed, in the employee’s work area
2. Allowing an employee additional restroom breaks
3. Allowing an employee whose work requires standing to sit and whose work requires sitting to stand, and
4. Allowing an employee breaks to eat and drink, as needed.

The EEOC also listed several other accommodations that may be reasonable, such as:

• A stool to sit on while working
• Time off for health care appointments
• Temporary reassignment
• Temporary suspension of certain job duties
• Remote work, and
• Time off to recover from childbirth or a miscarriage.