Walmart Pregnancy Discrimination Class Action Survives Motion to Dismiss

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Last week, an Illinois federal judge denied a bid by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to dismiss a class action lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against pregnant employees.

Plaintiffs Talisa Borders and Otisha Woolbright filed the Walmart class action lawsuit last year and accused the retail giant of employing discriminatory policies and practices toward pregnant employees who required workplace accommodations.

Borders and Woolbright seek to represent themselves and a proposed Class of current and former Walmart employees of stores throughout the United States who were subject to certain pregnancy policies and practices between March 19, 2013 and March 2014.

According to the Walmart class action lawsuit, Borders was denied pregnancy accommodations despite the fact she had a note from her doctor indicating she could not lift more than 25 pounds or climb ladders due to her pregnancy. She was allegedly told that Walmart only accommodates employees with medical conditions arising from on-the-job injuries.

Woolbright says she visited the emergency room due to concerns about pregnancy complications. Her discharge papers indicated she should avoid heavy lifting, the Walmart class action lawsuit says. She attempted to give the discharge papers to the store manager, who allegedly refused to take them and told her she could leave if she could not perform the job functions. She was also denied the opportunity to work in a different position that did not require heavy lifting.

Later that month, Woolbright became injured while lifting trays of rotisserie chicken at Walmart and missed several days of work. Because she was injured on the job, Walmart offered her accommodations, the Walmart class action lawsuit alleges. However, she says she was later fired for requiring pregnancy accommodations and requesting information about the company’s maternity leave policies.

On March 29, U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan denied Walmart’s motions to dismiss the pregnancy discrimination class action lawsuit. He rejected the retailer’s argument that the case should be dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction because the company is not headquartered in Illinois, finding Walmart’s presence in that state to be “exceptional.”

“While it may not be true that Walmart would be at home in every state in which it does business, it is persuasive that, as a state with more associates and more stores than its ‘principal place of business,’ Walmart’s business in Illinois is the ‘exceptional case’ for general jurisdiction outside of a paradigmatic forum,” Judge Reagan wrote in his order.

Walmart also sought to dismiss the pregnancy discrimination class action lawsuit on the grounds that Borders and Woolbright failed to state a claim, arguing the plaintiffs had not exhausted their administrative remedies at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before filing their complaint. However, Judge Reagan was not persuaded and found the plaintiffs’ claims were adequately compelling for this stage of the litigation.

The plaintiffs are represented by Mary Anne Sedey and Donna Harper of Sedey Harper Westhoff PC; Cyrus Mehri, Michael D. Lieder, U.W. Clemon and Brett D. Waton of Mehri & Skalet PLLC; Dina Bakst and Elizabeth Gedmark of A Better Balance; and 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 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.