Menonomie, Wisconsin Distribution Center Refused to Keep Pregnant Workers on the Job Working Light Duty, Federal Agency Charges

MADISON - Wal-Mart violated federal law when it refused to accommodate workers' pregnancy-related medical restrictions, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today. The lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, d/b/a Wal-Mart Distribution Center #6025, based in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where Alyssa Gilliam and a class of female employees worked. 

"What our investigation indicated," said Julianne Bowman, the EEOC's district director in Chicago who managed the federal agency's pre-suit administrative investigation, "is that Wal-Mart had a robust light duty program that allowed workers with lifting restrictions to be accommodated. But Wal-Mart deprived pregnant workers of the opportunity to participate in its light duty program." 

Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), which prohibits pregnancy discrimination in employment. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, d/b/a Wal-Mart Distribution Center #6025, Civil Action No. 3:18-cv-783) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin on September 20, 2018 after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process. 

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb. The EEOC is seeking full relief, including back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and non-monetary measures to correct Wal-Mart's practices going forward. 

Gregory Gochanour, regional attorney of the EEOC's Chicago District Office, said, "by accommodating a large percentage of its non-pregnant employees with light duty work while denying those same accommodations to pregnant workers similar in their ability or inability to work, Wal-Mart acted in contravention of the Supreme Court's ruling in Young v. UPS."

The EEOC's Chicago District Office is responsible for processing charges of employment discrimination, administrative enforcement and the conduct of agency litigation in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with Area Offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.