(Richfield, OH) Earlier this month, A Better Balance and our co-counsel Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP, filed a lawsuit on behalf of our client, Officer Morgan Miller, a law enforcement officer with Richfield, Ohio’s police department, alleging that her rights under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) were violated when she was pushed off the job for needing an accommodation to protect the health of her pregnancy.
Officer Miller had been working as a police officer for almost 6 years when she informed her boss that she was pregnant and requested some simple, doctor-ordered limitations to make her job less physically demanding and maintain a healthy pregnancy. The police department refused, and she was forced onto administrative leave. As the lawsuit alleges, there was ongoing light duty work available, but the Richfield Police Department refused to allow Officer Miller to stay on the job and perform it.
Pregnant and postpartum workers like Officer Miller have a legal right to reasonable accommodations like light duty under the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Many pregnant workers like Officer Miller are perfectly able to continue working and earning income while pregnant with the help of some slight changes to their work duties, but we have seen an unsettling pattern over the years of pregnant police officers and workers in other male-dominated fields being discriminated against for needing support while pregnant.
This lawsuit was one of the first filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and A Better Balance and Barkan Meizlish DeRose Cox, LLP are stepping in to assert Officer Miller’s rights at a time of uncertainty surrounding the federal Department of Justice’s capacity to effectively prosecute the rights of pregnant workers.
“Employers, including municipal employers, should know that they can no longer flout the law and push pregnant workers off their jobs at a time when their income is especially important for their growing families,” said A Better Balance’s Vice President Katherine Greenberg. “We are confident that Officer Miller’s rights under the PWFA will be vindicated.”
“Nobody should be punished for needing a little extra support at work while they’re pregnant,” said Officer Miller. “What happened to me shouldn’t happen to anyone, and now I know that the law is on my side. I hope that others will become aware of their rights under the PWFA now, and that they will know that being discriminated against for being pregnant and needing accommodations isn’t just wrong – it’s illegal.”