The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) failed to prove that an employer engaged in unlawful pregnancy discrimination when it offered temporary light duty assignments exclusively to employees injured on the job but did not do so for employees who experienced pregnancy-related job restrictions.
The ruling by the appeals court in EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East, L.P., rejected the EEOC’s argument that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark opinion in Young v. UPS, Inc., interpreting the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), imposes a heightened burden of proof on employers to explain why pregnant employees are not eligible for a benefit provided to other employees.
In addition, the Seventh Circuit found that the EEOC had not introduced evidence that Walmart’s policy imposed a significant burden on pregnant workers sufficient to undermine the company’s purported justification for its policy.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.