Dive Brief:
- A Walmart policy of providing temporary light duty to employees injured on the job but not to similarly restricted pregnant employees did not violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held (EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P., No 21-1690 (7th Cir. Aug. 16, 2022)).
- The case involved Walmart’s policy at a distribution center in Menomonie, Wisconsin, according to the court: Employees with lifting restrictions caused by a work injury could be offered temporary light duty work while they healed, court documents reflected. Walmart did not offer light duty to workers injured off the job or to pregnant workers. Instead, it required pregnant workers with lifting or other physical restrictions to go on leave.
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Walmart over the policy and a district granted summary judgment for the employer. On appeal, the 7th Circuit agreed with the lower court. The panel said the company provided a sound reason for doing so: It acted pursuant to a neutral worker’s compensation program that benefited employees injured on the job while limiting its labor costs and exposure to worker’s comp claims. The EEOC is reviewing the decision, an agency spokesperson told HR Dive in an email.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. Supreme Court set out a framework for determining when employers violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act by not providing light duty or other accommodations to pregnant workers. Since that 2015 opinion in Young v. UPS, many plaintiffs have sought redress.
In a highly publicized example, Walmart agreed to pay $14 million to settle a national class action lawsuit over a written policy that offered light duty to workers injured on the job but not to pregnant employees with similar restrictions. A federal district court in Illinois approved the settlement in 2020.
The more recent case was distinct, the 7th Circuit said, in that “offering temporary light duty to workers injured on the job pursuant to a state worker’s compensation law is a ‘legitimate nondiscriminatory’ justification for denying accommodations ... to everyone else, such as individuals not injured on the job, including pregnant women.”
Employers that offer light duty to employees with job-related injuries may violate the PDA when they also provide light duty to other groups of workers, but not to pregnant employees, the 7th Circuit said. For example, in Young v. UPS, besides providing light duty to workers injured on the job, UPS offered it to drivers who lost necessary certifications due to failed medical examples, lost driver’s licenses or involvement in an accident. There was also evidence UPS provided light duty to workers whose injuries didn’t occur on the job, “in short ... to accommodate ... every condition except pregnancy,” the 7th Circuit emphasized.
The EEOC’s recent suit failed because it didn’t show that non-pregnant employees injured off the job who were “similar to pregnant women in their ability or inability to work ... benefited from light duty,” the panel said.
Light duty generally refers to a reduction in work, removal of an essential function or a temporary reassignment, an EEOC guidance explained. But employers can provide a variety of adjustments to help a pregnant employee at work, such as ergonomic office furniture, a shift change, rest or bathroom breaks, eliminating marginal job functions, or allowing work from home, the guidance suggested.
Employers also can keep in mind that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, if a pregnant employee has a pregnancy-related medical condition that meets the ADA’s definition of disability, they must provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing do would involve significant difficulty or expense, according to the guidance.
Besides federal statutes, 30 states also have pregnancy accommodation laws, attorney Edward F. Harold, a Fisher Phillips regional managing partner, pointed out in an Aug. 2 blog post for the firm. Harold listed seven steps employers can take to ensure pregnancy accommodation requests are properly handled. These include developing a pregnancy accommodation policy; training managers to call HR before taking action; identifying the expert who will handle the questions; and avoiding a one-size-fits-all response.
