New England Biz Law Update
A federal court in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that a former employee’s lawsuit against a national media company can proceed to trial on several key workplace accommodation and retaliation claims.
The decision underscores the legal risks employers face when pregnancy-related medical conditions intersect with return-to-office mandates and restructuring decisions.
Background
The employee, a senior administrative professional, gave birth in June 2020 and later learned she had a condition known as “high lipase,” which required her to scald expressed breast milk within approximately one hour or discard it.
The process involved a time-intensive routine of pumping, heating milk to a specific temperature, cooling it, and sterilizing equipment.
When the media company implemented a post-pandemic return-to-office policy requiring employees to work in the office at least three days per week, the employee requested:
- A private space and time to pump
- Permission to use a hot plate to scald milk
- Continued telework for a limited period
The company approved the use of a hot plate and provided access to a reservable “quiet room,” though the parties disputed whether it was consistently available when needed.
As return-to-office discussions intensified in August 2022, HR denied the employee’s request to delay her in-office return in order to continue pumping and treating her breast milk. According to court documents, she was told that if she could not comply with the required in-office days, the company would consider her to have voluntarily resigned
Later that same day, an HR representative and her manager contacted her again and asked whether she intended to resign. She subsequently filed an internal complaint.
The employee’s leave history also became part of the factual backdrop. In August 2022, shortly after the return-to-office dispute, she took approximately two weeks FMLA leave to care for her husband following a serious injury.
After returning to work and resuming in-office days, she suffered a concussion in October 2022 and sought additional accommodation. Beginning in December 2022, she was placed on FMLA leave and received short-term disability benefits related to that injury.
In November 2022, amid these events, the media company initiated a restructuring. A decision matrix was used to evaluate certain positions. The employee was rated lowest in a two-person comparison group and selected for termination.
Legal claims at issue
The court dismissed two claims, including a federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act claim as the statute was not yet in effect at the time of termination.
However, the court allowed five other claims to move forward, including disability accommodation, pregnancy-related discrimination, FMLA interference, and retaliation.
The judge concluded that multiple factual disputes, including whether the accommodations were effective and whether the restructuring rationale was pretextual, must be resolved by a jury.
Practical employer takeaways
Here are four key lessons for employers:
- Lactation-related medical conditions can trigger multiple statutes. Accommodation requests tied to lactation may implicate federal disability law, pregnancy discrimination protections, FMLA, and local statutes simultaneously.
- A space must be workable, not just technically available. If a lactation room is frequently reserved, multipurpose, or impractical for the employee’s medical needs, a court may question whether it is an effective accommodation.
- Subjective reduction-in-force criteria invite scrutiny. When layoffs rely heavily on subjective scoring, especially within a small comparison group, courts may examine whether protected activity influenced the outcome.
- Internal communications matter. Emails expressing frustration with leave or accommodation requests can later serve as evidence in a pretext analysis.
Lactation and pregnancy-related accommodation issues remain a significant area of litigation risk, particularly when layered onto return-to-office transitions and workforce restructurings.
