On April 18, 2018, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a press release detailing one of its most recently-filed lawsuits, a pregnancy discrimination case against a nursing and rehabilitation center in Raleigh, North Carolina. According to the EEOC, the facility “violated federal law when it refused to accommodate the pregnancy-related work restriction of a certified nursing assistant and forced her to resign.” The lawsuit states that the facility offered light duty or job modifications to accommodate the temporary restrictions only of those injured on the job, which necessarily excluded pregnant employees. As we notified our clients at our 2015 and 2016 Labor and Employment Seminars, the United States Supreme Court in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., determined that employers who offer modified duty or otherwise accommodate temporary work restrictions must do so for all employees with similar limitations (regardless of the reason for the limitation), and cannot limit such a policy solely to those injured on the job.
Although the Young case was decided in March 2015, we continue to see employers who have not yet changed their policy regarding the provision of modified or light duty. If your “light duty” policy applies only to those injured on the job, your policy may need to be changed. Notably, President Trump’s nominee for General Counsel of the EEOC, Sharon Gustafson, represented Plaintiff Peggy Young in the Young v. UPS litigation, so you can expect that the EEOC’s focus on this issue will not change in the near future.
If you have any questions, or need any assistance in reviewing or amending your light duty policy, we are ready to help. To learn more about recent updates in employment law, plan to attend our 2018 Labor and Employment Law Seminar on Friday, October 19, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham (The Wynfrey Hotel).