Step2 Company, LLC, a toy and plastic products manufacturer with plants in Northern Ohio, violated federal law by failing to provide reasonable accommodations to a pregnant employee with disabilities and firing her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit.
According to the suit, Step2 disciplined an assembly worker, who worked at the company’s Perrysville, Ohio facility, under its attendance policy when she was absent because of pregnancy-related medical conditions and took approved leave for chronic mental health conditions.
The suit alleges Step2 failed to accommodate the employee by excusing her pregnancy- and disability-related absences and also denied her requests to sit down briefly between assemblies, take more frequent breaks, and avoid working on highly physically strenuous assemblies because of her pregnancy or related medical conditions. Instead, Step2 retaliated against the worker for requesting accommodations, interfered with her ability to further seek reasonable accommodations, and then fired her in July 2024, the EEOC said…