Walgreens owes $200K settlement in pregnancy discrimination lawsuit

A pregnant Walgreens employee asked to go to a doctor’s office when she began spotting during her shift in an Alexandria, La., store on Dec. 2, 2020. Her boss allegedly told her no, saying they didn’t have a replacement and accusing her of asking for too many accommodations.

The woman, identified as Jane Doe in court documents, quit on the spot so she could heed her doctor’s advice and get medical attention, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

She miscarried later that day.

More than three years later, Walgreens has agreed to pay $205,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the EEOC on Doe’s behalf. In an 11-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana this month, EEOC lawyers allege that Walgreens violated the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act by preventing a pregnant woman suffering from diabetes and hypoglycemia from getting emergency medical treatment.

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As part of the settlement, Walgreens will also enter into a two-year consent decree requiring the company to mandate training for employees and supervisors at its stores in 10 cities on pregnancy-related discrimination, reasonable accommodations and the company’s anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation policies. Walgreens will have to regularly report to the EEOC about pregnancy and disability complaints it receives at those stores.

“Miscarriages can be personally devastating. No one should have to choose between getting the pregnancy care they need and losing a job,” Elizabeth Owen, a lawyer in the EEOC’s New Orleans office, wrote in a news release.

Walgreens spokesman Fraser Engerman told The Washington Post in a statement that the company denies the EEOC’s allegations but is nevertheless “pleased to resolve this matter.”

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“Walgreens does not tolerate discrimination of any kind against our team members, patients, or customers,” Engerman wrote in an email.

Walgreens hired Doe on Sept. 17, 2020, as a customer sales associate at one of its two stores in Alexandria, La., the EEOC alleges in its complaint. Less than a month later, Doe told her boss that she was under a doctor’s care because of weakness and asked permission to eat at work, the complaint states, and on Oct. 27, she notified the company that she was pregnant.

On Nov. 1, she allegedly sent the store manager a text message saying that she was too lightheaded and confused to return and finish her shift. She wrote that she was struggling with low blood sugar and another supervisor had told her she couldn’t take a break to eat or snack while she worked, the complaint states. She also said she had a doctor’s appointment in the morning.

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The store manager allegedly replied that Doe needed to come in to help the store get ready for inventory, and that if she didn’t, it would be considered “job abandonment.” She also said that Doe needed to provide a doctor’s note laying out her blood sugar issues and work restrictions, the complaint states.

The next day, Doe provided the manager with just such a note, in which her doctor said Doe was diabetic and should be allowed to snack throughout her shift, according to the EEOC.

The lawsuit mentions no incidents for the next month.

Then, around 7 a.m. on Dec. 2, Doe went to the store restroom during her shift and noticed she was spotting, the complaint states. She allegedly came out and told the shift lead that she was spotting and needed to leave. The lead said she needed to wait for the store manager to arrive. In the meantime, Doe called her doctor, according to the EEOC.

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When the store manager arrived, Doe immediately notified her that she needed to leave because of the spotting, the complaint states. Even though Walgreens employees are usually permitted to leave for an emergency and either of the supervisors could have covered, the store manager said Doe needed to stay until they found a replacement, the EEOC alleges.

The store manager eventually told Doe she couldn’t find a replacement, the complaint states. The manager also allegedly said she hired Doe before she got pregnant, that Doe was no longer a good fit for the company now that she was pregnant, and that she had asked for too many accommodations.

At 8:19 a.m., Doe’s doctor texted her, instructing her to call the office so they could have her come in and “check things out,” according to the complaint.

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Doe told the store manager that given her doctor’s text and the refusal to let her leave, she was quitting so she could go to her doctor, it states.

She suffered a miscarriage later that day, it alleges.

Doe filed a discrimination complaint with the EEOC, and on July 25, 2022, the commission sent Walgreens a letter saying officials had found reasonable cause to believe the company had violated the Civil Rights Act and the ADA. They negotiated with Walgreens to try to remedy the “unlawful employment practices,” but when those failed, the EEOC sued the company in September 2022.

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