Pregnant Worker Law Spurs Nearly 2,000 Initial Charges to EEOC

In the 11 months following the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act’s effective date, the EEOC received 1,869 charges from workers who claim their employers failed to provide them with required accommodations, according to the agency’s general counsel.

Most of the charges since the law went into effect in June 2023 have related to employers not providing or delaying accommodations for workers by requiring unnecessary medical documentation, Karla Gilbride told reporters and stakeholders at a briefing Thursday.

This was the case in what the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said was the first suit it has brought on a worker’s behalf under the PWFA, which it filed Sept. 10 on behalf of an employee of a nationwide producer of trucking equipment.

Gilbride said she is not aware of any charges filed with the EEOC under the PWFA relating to abortion care. The commission’s final rules under the pregnancy bias law cited abortion as a “related medical condition” that might necessitate a workplace accommodation, leading to conservative pushback, including litigation from Republican-led states attacking the rules’ legality.

The most common charges the EEOC has received through the PWFA include employees being denied “basic, common sense” accommodations, such as having more water breaks, a place to pump breast milk, or permission to come in late due to morning sickness, Gilbride said.

The EEOC receives many thousands of charges each year under the laws it enforces. Many are resolved through mediation or conciliation pre-litigation, a process that is largely confidential. In most cases when the charge does reach the litigation stage, the commission will issue a right-to-sue letter, a green light for the aggrieved employee to bring their claim to court.

Litigants have sued under the PWFA since the law went into effect, but the EEOC’s new complaint against truck and equipment company Wabash National Corporation is the agency’s first under filed the statute. The EEOC said Wabash violated the PWFA by denying an employee’s accommodation request to transfer to a role that did not require lying on her stomach, instead offering unpaid leave that pushed the employee to return to work without the modification.

The company also unlawfully required medical documentation for the request, the EEOC alleged.

Requesting additional medical documentation is not necessary under the PWFA and is a way employers have been delaying accommodations that also poses violations under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Gilbride said.

More Stats to Come

Like the case against Wabash, charges the EEOC has been receiving under the PWFA also include violations of the ADA and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, or some combination of the three, Gilbride said.

Other charges have been resolved through conciliation agreement.

In one recent agreement the EEOC made public through a Wednesday statement, ABC Pest Control Inc, a Florida-based company, entered into conciliation to resolve a charge after an employee alleged she was illegally fired when she requested leave for monthly medical appointments for her pregnancy.

The pest control company agreed to pay $47,480 in damages to the former employee and appoint an EEO coordinator to revise its employment policies.

The EEOC will share more data about the number of charges it’s received under the PWFA at the end of the fiscal year, Gilbride said.

As the EEOC pushes forward with enforcing the pregnancy bias law, the agency is still fending off the Republican state-led challenges over the PWFA rules it finalized in April.

Texas won a federal court challenge to block enforcement of the PWFA against state employees in February. The EEOC has appealed the decision.

Another legal challenge to the EEOC’s rules from 17 red states filed in Arkansas federal district court is being appealed after a judge said dismissed it on standing grounds.