EEOC Sues North American Lighting Under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

CHICAGO — Automotive lighting manufacturer North American Lighting, Inc. (NAL) violated federal law by discriminating against a class of pregnant employees since July 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

The EEOC charged that NAL, which manufactures headlights and taillights and operates facilities in Salem, Flora, Mattoon and Paris, Illinois, refused to accommodate the pregnancy-related lifting restrictions of employees throughout its Illinois facilities. One employee was allegedly sent home and fired the next day after company officials told her that her doctor’s note was “not good enough” and that “we don’t want to be responsible if you miscarry.” The complaint alleges that another pregnant employee was placed on unpaid leave rather than being accommodated and was then fired when her leave expired.

The EEOC also alleged that NAL failed to accommodate nursing mothers who needed breaks and a private space to pump breast milk. The company required women to pump in their cars or in rooms without locks, denied them adequate time to pump, and refused one employee’s request to continue taking a single pumping break during her lunch beyond one year after childbirth. As a result, some women were forced to quit.

According to the lawsuit, NAL accommodated employees with lifting restrictions arising from on-the-job injuries by assigning them to light duty but refused to do the same for its pregnant employees. One employee was told she was denied a light-duty assignment because her restriction did not arise from an on-the-job injury.

“The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, including lifting restrictions and the need to pump breast milk at work,” said Catherine Eschbach, acting EEOC general counsel. “Employers cannot force pregnant workers onto leave, or push nursing mothers out of their jobs, when a reasonable accommodation would allow them to keep working.”

Such alleged conduct violates the PWFA, which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related restrictions, unless it would cause an undue hardship for the business. The EEOC filed suit against North American Lighting (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. North American Lighting, Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-01032) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

The EEOC seeks monetary damages, including back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief against the employer to prevent similar unlawful conduct in the future.

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

The EEOC’s Chicago District Office has jurisdiction over Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and North and South Dakota, with area offices in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

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.