Real PWFA Lawsuits and What They Teach Employers

10/28/2025

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) is already reshaping how employers handle pregnancy-related accommodations—and the EEOC’s first lawsuits are setting the tone for enforcement. These early cases show what compliance looks like in practice and where employers are falling short. In this article, we’ll look at real PWFA lawsuits, the EEOC’s enforcement priorities, and the key lessons every organization should take away to avoid the same costly mistakes.

Why Early PWFA Enforcement Matters

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) didn't wait long to begin enforcing the PWFA after it took effect. The agency's initial wave of lawsuits reveals its enforcement priorities and provides a clear warning to employers who have not yet updated their policies and training. These first cases are not just legal actions; they are teaching moments that signal what regulators are looking for.

Many of these early lawsuits involve familiar scenarios: a pregnant employee needing light duty is instead forced onto unpaid leave, an informal request for an accommodation is ignored by a manager, or a company applies a rigid, one-size-fits-all leave policy without considering alternatives. Understanding these patterns now allows organizations to audit their own practices and fix compliance gaps before they become the subject of an EEOC investigation. Paying attention to these enforcement trends is a critical part of managing PWFA compliance risk.

EEOC Enforcement Trends Under the PWFA

While each case is unique, the first year of EEOC PWFA enforcement shows clear themes that every HR professional and manager should recognize. These trends highlight the core principles of the law and the most common ways employers are failing to meet them.

Key enforcement trends include:

• Failure to Engage in the Interactive Process: The EEOC is targeting employers who delay, ignore, or shut down conversations about accommodations. A simple failure to respond to an employee's verbal request is being treated as a direct violation.
• Requiring Unnecessary Medical Documentation: Regulators are scrutinizing employers who demand a doctor's note for simple, obvious requests like needing a stool or more frequent bathroom breaks. This creates an unlawful barrier for employees.
• Applying Inflexible, One-Size-Fits-All Rules: "100% healed" return-to-work policies or automatic leave placements for any employee with a restriction are being actively challenged. The law requires an individualized assessment every time.
• Lack of Supervisor Training: A recurring theme is that front-line managers are often the source of the violation. They either fail to recognize a request, give incorrect information, or retaliate against an employee.

Each of these trends points back to a central expectation of the PWFA: employers are expected to be collaborative partners in finding a solution, not inflexible gatekeepers.

Case Study 1 — Denying Modified Duties

One of the most common PWFA lawsuits involves the denial of modified duties, particularly for roles that involve physical labor. The PWFA was specifically designed to prevent employers from pushing pregnant employees with minor restrictions out of the workplace.

• Scenario: A warehouse employee in her second trimester informed her supervisor that her doctor recommended a 20-pound lifting restriction. Her job occasionally required her to lift boxes weighing up to 40 pounds. The supervisor, citing company policy, told her that since she couldn't perform all her duties, she had to take unpaid leave until after her pregnancy.
• EEOC Allegation: The employer violated the PWFA by failing to engage in the interactive process and explore reasonable accommodations. The company made no effort to see if heavy lifting could be temporarily assigned to a coworker, if lifting aids were available, or if the employee could be temporarily moved to a light-duty role like inventory management.
• Lesson: The PWFA requires employers to actively seek workable alternatives, not default to leave. Before concluding that an employee cannot work, you must explore and document all potential accommodations, including job restructuring, temporary task reassignment, and equipment modifications.

Case Study 2 — Mishandling Accommodation Requests

Many PWFA violations begin with a simple, informal conversation that a manager fails to handle correctly. This highlights the critical importance of training supervisors to recognize and escalate any potential request.

• Scenario: A retail associate, who was six months pregnant, mentioned to her store manager during a shift that her feet and ankles were swelling and she was struggling to stand for eight hours straight. She asked if she could bring a stool to use behind the counter during slow periods. The manager replied, "Let me think about it," but never followed up or mentioned the conversation to HR.
• EEOC Finding: The manager’s failure to act was a violation. The employee’s informal comment was a valid accommodation request that triggered the company's duty to engage in the interactive process. By ignoring it, the employer effectively denied the request without any process.
• Lesson: Train every single supervisor that there are no "magic words" for an accommodation request. Any mention of a pregnancy-related limitation must be recognized, taken seriously, and immediately escalated to HR to initiate a documented interactive process.

Case Study 3 — Confidentiality Breaches

The PWFA adopts the same strict confidentiality rules as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A breach of an employee’s medical privacy is a violation in itself, even if an accommodation is ultimately provided.

• Scenario: An employee confidentially disclosed to her manager and HR that she needed a modified schedule to attend therapy for severe postpartum anxiety. HR approved the accommodation. To explain the schedule change to the team, the manager announced in a team meeting that the employee was "dealing with some postpartum issues" and needed a different schedule for a while.
• EEOC Finding: This was a clear breach of confidentiality. The supervisor violated both PWFA and ADA privacy provisions by sharing the employee's sensitive medical information with coworkers who had no business need to know.
• Lesson: Medical and pregnancy-related information is on a strict need-to-know basis. Train managers that they are only to share the accommodation itself (e.g., "Jane's new schedule is 10-6"), not the underlying medical reason for it. HR must be the sole gatekeeper of confidential medical details.

Case Study 4 — Retaliation After Requesting an Accommodation

Retaliation is one of the most frequently filed charges with the EEOC, and the PWFA is no exception. It is illegal to punish an employee in any way for requesting or using reasonable accommodation.

• Scenario: An account executive requested a flexible schedule for a few months to attend prenatal care appointments for a high-risk pregnancy. The request was approved. However, two weeks later, her manager removed her from a key client account, stating that the team needed someone "more available."
• EEOC Finding: The EEOC found a clear link between the protected activity (requesting an accommodation) and the adverse action (being removed from a major account). This constituted unlawful PWFA retaliation.
• Lesson: Ensure managers understand that an employee's rights against retaliation begin the moment they make a request. Any negative employment action following a request will be heavily scrutinized. Document legitimate business reasons for all performance-related decisions, especially for employees who have recently engaged in protected activity.

Common Threads Across PWFA Lawsuits

Looking at these pregnancy accommodation lawsuit patterns, a few common threads emerge. The good news is that these are almost always preventable mistakes. The root causes of most PWFA lawsuits are not complex legal debates, but breakdowns in basic management and HR processes.

Across early enforcement actions, the same issues appear repeatedly:

• Managers Lack Training: Supervisors are unprepared to recognize informal requests, respond appropriately, or maintain confidentiality.
• Failure to Document: Employers cannot produce a paper trail showing they engaged in a good-faith interactive process.
• Aggressive Documentation Requests: HR departments default to asking for a doctor's note for every minor request, creating unnecessary hurdles.
• Poor HR-Operations Communication: A disconnect between HR's policy knowledge and a manager's on-the-ground actions leads to inconsistent application of the rules.

Documentation and the Interactive Process

In any employment law claim, documentation is the employer's strongest defense. Under the PWFA, a clear paper trail demonstrating a good-faith interactive process is essential. It proves that you took the employee's request seriously and worked collaboratively to find a solution.

Your PWFA documentation should include:

• A record of the initial request, including the date and who received it.
• Notes from all interactive process conversations with the employee.
• Copies of any medical documentation requested and received (stored confidentially).
• A summary of the accommodation options considered.
• A written confirmation of the accommodation provided, including its duration.
• Follow-up notes from checking in with the employee to ensure the accommodation is effective.

Using standardized templates for requests and responses can help ensure this process is followed consistently for every employee.

How Employers Can Stay Ahead of PWFA Enforcement

The key to avoiding PWFA lawsuits is to be proactive. Don't wait for an employee to make a request to figure out your process. Take these steps now to build a compliant and defensible program.

• Train Your Managers: This is the single most important step. Conduct regular training on how to recognize, respond to, and escalate accommodation requests.
• Review Your Policies: Update your accommodation, leave, light-duty, and return-to-work policies to align with PWFA requirements.
• Audit Job Descriptions: Ensure all job descriptions accurately identify essential functions. This is critical for evaluating accommodation requests.
• Integrate Your Training: Don't treat the PWFA as a standalone topic. Weave it into your existing ADA and FMLA compliance training to show how the laws work together.
• Document Everything: Create and enforce a non-negotiable documentation standard for every stage of the accommodation process.

The Importance of Ongoing Manager Training

Because managers so often create unintentional risk, a one-and-done training session is not enough. PWFA training for managers should be an ongoing effort.

Regular refreshers help keep the information top-of-mind. Use scenario-based training that allows managers to practice responding to real-world situations, such as an employee asking for lifting restrictions or a modified schedule. This practical application is far more effective than simply reviewing a slide deck. The more comfortable managers are with the process, the less likely they are to make a costly mistake under pressure.

See What Real PWFA Cases Can Teach Your Organization

Don’t wait for an EEOC complaint to test your policies. The lessons from these early PWFA lawsuits provide a clear roadmap for what to do—and what to avoid. By learning from the mistakes of others, you can strengthen your own HR compliance strategy and foster a supportive, lawful workplace.

Get our PWFA Compliance Audit Checklist to identify and fix your organization's risk areas before they become liabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are examples of PWFA lawsuits?
Early PWFA lawsuits often involve employers who force pregnant employees onto unpaid leave instead of offering modified duties, ignore informal requests for simple accommodations like seating, or retaliate against an employee after they request an accommodation.

How is the EEOC enforcing the PWFA?
The EEOC is actively filing lawsuits to enforce the PWFA. Its enforcement priorities appear focused on employers who fail to engage in the interactive process, maintain inflexible policies, or do not provide accommodations for common pregnancy-related limitations.

What can employers learn from early PWFA cases?
The key lessons are the critical importance of training front-line managers, documenting every step of the interactive process, maintaining confidentiality, and avoiding retaliation. These cases show that process failures are the root cause of most violations.

How can companies prevent PWFA violations?
Companies can prevent violations through proactive measures, including updating accommodation and leave policies, conducting regular PWFA training for all managers, auditing job descriptions, and creating a consistent, well-documented interactive process for handling all requests.