By Kate McGovern Tornone, Editor
An employer will pay $55,000 for failing to accommodate a pregnant employee’s lifting restrictions, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has announced.
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When an emergency technician informed First Call Ambulance Service, LLC, in Nashville that she was pregnant and was prohibited from lifting patients weighing more than 200 pounds, the company placed her on unpaid leave, according to EEOC.
“At the same time, First Call allowed non-pregnant employees to use a power cot to lift patients,” the EEOC alleged in a lawsuit filed on the employee’s behalf. The company maintained an unlawful policy of refusing to accommodate female employees with lifting restrictions due to pregnancy, while providing comparable accommodations to non-pregnant employees, the commission claimed in EEOC v. First Call Ambulance Service, LLC, No. 3:15-cv-01041 (M.D. Tenn.).