Walmart Class Action Says Pregnant Employees Face Discrimination

A class action lawsuit filed against Walmart alleges that the company discriminates against its female employees when they are pregnant in violation of Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act.

The Walmart pregnancy discrimination class action lawsuit asserts that in 2013 and 2014, Walmart had a company policy “which discriminated on the basis of sex by providing more favorable accommodations to non-pregnant employees than to pregnant employees similar in ability or inability to work.”

The complaint notes that many women are unable to perform certain tasks while they are pregnant, such as heavy lifting or standing for long periods of time. By failing to provide alternatives for these workers, or “accommodation” under the Civil Rights Act, Walmart “treat[ed] pregnant employees as second-class citizens,” according to the lawsuit.

The Walmart class action states that in 2014 Walmart changed its accommodation policy, and did not specifically exclude pregnancy from a list of medical conditions that could be accommodated. The class action argues that this change in its policy highlights that the old policy excluded pregnancy in violation of federal law.

The class action provides two examples of Walmart’s conduct against its employees under the old policy. First, plaintiff Talisa Borders states that she lives in St. Louis, and between July 2012 and April 2017 she was employed by Walmart. In 2013, Borders was pregnant, and was told to get a note from her doctor if she couldn’t lift heavy boxes or climb a ladder. When Borders provided a doctor’s note to her supervisor and human resources personnel, they refused to allow her to continue working.

Borders claims that Walmart personnel told her it was against company policy to provide accommodations, and made her take unpaid leave. Borders says she did not work for several months, and when she returned six weeks after the birth of her child, she was given a lower paying job.

Second, plaintiff Otisha Woolbright states that she worked at a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida from August 2013 through January 2014. When she became pregnant, she had complications and was told by her doctor that she must avoid heavy lifting.

Woolbirght states that she tried to give the doctor’s note to her supervisor at Walmart, but that the supervisor refused. According to the complaint, the supervisor told Woolbright that she could either do her job, or walk out the door. Woolbright claims that she asked to transfer departments, but was refused. And when Woolbright asked about Walmart’s policies on taking leave for childbirth, she was fired by the store manager.

The discrimination lawsuit requests certification of a Class of all female employees of any Walmart store in the U.S., who requested accommodation because of a pregnancy but were denied between March 19, 2013, and the date Walmart implemented its changed accommodation policy. The class action seeks damages for putative Class Members for “physical and mental injuries…loss of income and benefits, mental anguish, emotional distress, and humiliation.”

Borders and Woolbright are represented by Donna L. Harper and Mary Anne Sedey of Sedey Harper Westhoff P.C., by Cyrus Mehri, Michael D. Lieder, U.W. Clemon, and Brett D. Watson of Mehri & Skalet, PLLC, by Dina Bakst and Elizabeth Gedmark of A Better Balance, and by Emily Martin and Andrea Johnson of the National Women’s Law Center.

The Walmart Pregnancy Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Talisa Borders, et al. v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Case No. 3:17-cv-00506, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.

UPDATE: On March 29, 2018, an Illinois federal judge denied a bid by Walmart to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against pregnant employees.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 15, 2019, Walmart settled a class action lawsuit for $14 million filed by pregnant workers who claim the company discriminated against them because they were pregnant.