February 19, 2026
What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You! – Ask This HR Manager
Back in September 2024, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against an employer alleging it violated the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it refused to accommodate an employee’s pregnancy-related limitations, forced her to take unpaid leave, refused to provide her lactation breaks following the birth of her child, and terminated her.
Counts 51 and 52 of the Statements of Fact in the complaint allege, “[The Plaintiff] asked the Administrator / HR Director if he was aware of the PWFA and that it requires pregnancy-related accommodations. The Administrator / HR Director said he knew nothing about the PWFA and that he would just document that [she] was unable to complete her duties.” OOPS!
Today, the parties settled the matter to the tune of $90,000 and a variety of commitments from the employer. Under the consent decree, the employer:
- cannot require the employee to maintain silence (non-disclosure) or confidentiality about the matter nor promise to not re-apply for employment with the employer;
- must engage “appropriate” HR personnel to develop and enforce related policies, review all reasonable accommodation requests; investigate and resolve employment-related issues;
- must adopt a written policy prohibiting pregnancy and disability discrimination with 14 required elements;
- must adopt written procedures for providing reasonable accommodation for pregnancy and disability with six required elements;
- must provide training of at least 1.5 hours to all personnel involved in granting or denying requests for reasonable accommodation with five required elements, plus training of at least 45 minutes for all other employees with at least five required elements;
- and more!
Lessons learned? In his defense, if the HR Manager did say he was not aware of the PWFA, the law had only taken effect weeks before the employee alleges she asked him this question. The final regulations would not be published for another ten months. Having said that, ignorance is no excuse.
Be proactive. Train your managers. Don’t assume all HR staff are familiar with the myriad federal, state and local employment laws; train them, too! Consider annual updates for all. Provide similar but different training for all staff. If you don’t tell them what their rights are, someone else will likely do so! Talk to your company’s legal counsel for guidance along the way and advice on what to include in your training, policies, and procedures.
