Walgreens settles pregnancy discrimination lawsuit out of Alexandria store
Walgreens has agreed to pay a former employee in an Alexandria store $205,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing it of refusing to accommodate her medical conditions and later when she began experiencing pregnancy complications.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit on behalf of the former customer service associate, identified only as Jane Doe, in September 2022. The consent decree was signed on March 15 by U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty.
The woman worked at the location on Masonic Drive, according to the lawsuit.
Walgreens, however, denies the EEOC's allegations. The consent judgment states the company and the EEOC agreed to the settlement "in order to avoid the additional expense and other burdens that continued and protracted litigation of this case would involve."
The consent decree will remain in effort for two years and only apply to the Walgreens locations in the Alexandria store's district — Alexandria, Pineville, Baker, Baton Rouge, Greenwell Springs, Marksville, Natchitoches, Opelousas, Port Allen and Zachary.
The woman was hired in mid-September 2020 and, less than a month later, the woman told her supervisor that she was under the care of a doctor "because of weakness" and asked to be allowed to eat while working, if needed, reads the lawsuit.
By late October, Doe told Walgreens she was pregnant. Days later, she texted her supervisor and said she was too lightheaded to come to work. She also texted that she always went to lunch at 5 p.m., but another supervisor told her she couldn't do that and was refused permission to go on a 15-minute break to eat a snack.
She texted that she wasn't sure her doctor would let her work, and "I feel the situation could have been handle (sic) differently."
Her supervisor responded by saying Doe never fully explained her condition. But she did text that the other supervisor could have let her eat a snack. She asked Doe to get documentation from her doctor regarding her conditions.
The supervisor also texted that they needed her at work for inventory "or this will be job abandonment if no ... excuse ... If you want to talk about it, you'll have to come in and talk to me."
Doe responded that she was coming in, and she finished her shift, according to the lawsuit. Doe provided her bosses a doctor's note the next day that stated she was diabetic and needed to snack during her shift, if needed.
One month later, Doe went to the restroom and found that she was spotting. She told a shift lead she needed to leave, but that woman told Doe she had to stay until her supervisor arrived. In the meantime, Doe called her doctor.
When her supervisor arrived, Doe told her of the spotting and that she needed to leave. But the supervisor said Doe couldn't leave until a replacement was found for her. Neither the supervisor nor the shift lead replaced her, even though they could have, reads the lawsuit.
Then, the supervisor told Doe she couldn't find a replacement, that she "had hired Ms. Doe before she became pregnant, that Ms. Doe was not a good fit for Walgreens now that she was pregnant and that Ms. Doe had asked for too many accommodations," it reads.
Doe also had received a text message from her doctor's office that told her to call so they could get her in to check her. Because of her supervisor's response, Doe told her she was resigning so she could go to her doctor.
She suffered a miscarriage later that day.
The lawsuit accused Walgreens of failing to provide reasonable accommodations to Doe and essentially firing her when it failed to provide that so she could get medical attention. It also contended Walgreens discriminated against Doe because of her disabilities, including diabetes and hypoglycemia.
Supervisors at stores within the Alexandria region — outside of pharmacies — must undergo training on prohibited discrimination and retaliation. While shift leads don't fall under that training requirement, the ones at the Masonic Drive store must take the training, reads the consent decree.
Also as part of the settlement, Walgreens must appoint a liaison to ensure it complies with the consent decree. The liaison will make reports to the EEOC.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Walgreens settles EEOC lawsuit filed after woman's 2020 miscarriage
