The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) docket for fiscal year 2025 included 37 sex and pregnancy discrimination lawsuits. Ten were brought under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, or both, and the others alleged sex discrimination under Title VII.
In the recruitment process, there can be overt discrimination based on pregnancy, as seen in refusal of necessary workplace accommodation. Hostile attitudes toward pregnant individuals during recruitment and in the workplace can constitute discrimination.
Discrimination in employment occurs when someone who is pregnant, who has recently given birth, or who has some pregnancy-related conditions is treated less favorably than others. But in practice, demonstrating that someone has been discriminated against due to pregnancy, childbirth, or other pregnancy-related circumstances can be complex. One has to provide proof of the causal connection.
States differ in how they handle these kinds of cases in the workplace. California employees who believe an employer has mistreated them based on pregnancy status should consider speaking with a Burbank pregnancy discrimination lawyer as soon as possible.
Here is a detailed examination of the steps employees can take when they believe their rights have been violated.
What the Law Covers
Pregnancy discrimination includes negative actions based on an individual’s pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential pregnancy, or pregnancy-related health conditions and extends to potential employment.
According to the EEOC website, three federal laws pertain to the matter. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to treat pregnancy discrimination as a form of sex discrimination. The separate Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires covered employers to accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless doing so would cause undue hardship.
The third law is the Americans with Disabilities Act. It requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities, including pregnancy-related impairments that fall under the category of disability.
Evidence That Carries a Claim
Three kinds of evidence can support a claim, namely timing, comparisons, and documentation. Timing looks at how soon adverse treatment follows an announced pregnancy or an accommodation request. A connection may be inferred, for instance, when a change of position comes shortly after a positive performance review and a pregnancy announcement, although an employer can offer legitimate business reasons for the change.
An employee who misses five days of work for knee surgery and faces no consequences offers a point of comparison. A pregnant colleague who misses the same five days and is then reprimanded or demoted may have experienced pregnancy discrimination.
Evidence of discrimination based on pregnancy can be documented in many different ways, such as workplace schedules, evaluations, emails and text messages, and workplace policies, among others.
When employers keep inconsistent records and state employment law changes, employees can easily lose track of what they have filed. Employees trying to organize their documentation of discrimination may need the assistance of legal firms like King Employment Law, a firm that handles cases involving discrimination based on pregnancy, including retaliation and wrongful dismissal.
Even the words themselves can have a significant impact. Terms such as “committed,” “available,” or “on leave,” when used by supervisors in discussing a worker’s return, can serve as relevant evidence, especially if said during termination. Even with a given justification, such as company reorganization or bad performance, the strength of the employer’s case depends on how well the documents support the reason.
Witness statements and policy documents offer support for an employment claim. Witness examples include colleagues who heard the comments, as well as managers who approved leave arrangements for other employees or developed the leave policy.
The accuracy of remembering a past event declines as the months pass. Facts written down and signed at the time of an event are generally considered more reliable evidence than recollections written later.
Accommodation Requests Work Differently
The accommodation case will be different from traditional discrimination cases as the inquiry changes from why the employer acted to whether it responded to a known limitation.
According to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, employers covered by the Act should reasonably accommodate known limitations unless doing so causes undue hardship. Evidence will then focus on the extent of the employer’s knowledge, the timing of obtaining this knowledge, and the actions taken.
A dated letter that states the limitation, along with the response to it, will answer many of these questions. Employers may argue undue hardship. In these kinds of cases, evidence often shows that the modification was small, temporary, or made to others.
Deadlines and Agencies
Time frames begin early. According to the EEOC, the time frame for filing a charge is 180 days, extended to 300 days when a state or local agency enforces a law against the same discrimination. Federal workers have 45 days to initiate contact with their EEO counselor. Outside of the federal workforce, employees will usually encounter longer filing deadlines. Most states, including several municipalities, maintain a distinct agency dedicated to discrimination complaints. These agencies are often known as the Fair Employment Practices Agency.
Pregnancy discrimination claims do not rely heavily on one singular act. The claims rely mostly on timing and routine records of pregnancy. It is the plaintiff’s duty to provide records to back up claims of discrimination and not rely on their own memory of events.