ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Arc, Inc., a nonprofit providing disability support services, violated federal law when it refused to provide a pregnant employee with reasonable accommodations, forced her to take leave, and ultimately terminated her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a community support specialist at St. Louis Arc notified her supervisors in early 2024 that she was pregnant and later submitted medical documentation for a temporary 20-pound lifting restriction due to pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain. Although St. Louis Arc routinely provided light-duty or modified assignments to other employees with similar temporary lifting restrictions — including those injured at work or recovering from medical conditions — the company refused to accommodate her restriction. Instead, St. Louis Arc placed the employee on leave, which was only guaranteed for 12 weeks. When her leave expired shortly before her due date, the nonprofit fired the employee rather than offering additional accommodation or extending her leave, the suit said.

“Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to ensure that pregnant workers could keep working even when they need job modifications to accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy and childbirth,” said Andrea G. Baran, regional attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis District. “No worker should be forced to choose between maintaining the health of her pregnancy and earning a paycheck to support herself and her family.”

Such alleged conduct violates the PWFA, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, absent an undue hardship, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination because of sex, including pregnancy. The PWFA also makes it unlawful to force an employee to take leave when other accommodations are available. The statute also prohibits employers from firing an employee because she needs or requests an accommodation.

David S. Davis, director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District, said, “Forced leave isn’t an accommodation — it’s treating pregnant workers as second-class citizens. The EEOC is committed to protecting the rights of pregnant workers.”

The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. St. Louis Arc, Inc., Case No. 4:26-cv-01547-RWS) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

For more information about pregnancy discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/pregnancy-discrimination. Resources on the PWFA are available at: https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-pregnant-workers-fairness-act.

The EEOC’s St. Louis District Office has jurisdiction over Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and a portion of Southern Illinois.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.