The Washington state Attorney General’s Office is suing the owner and operator of Kadlec Regional Medical Center for allegedly repeatedly failing to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant and nursing employees working throughout its hospitals.
The lawsuit was filed against Renton-based Providence Health & Services in King County Superior Court on May 13, according to a release. It comes after an investigation into incidents going back to 2021 that reportedly found expectant and new mothers, many of them nurses, were routinely denied workplace accommodations and even retaliated against “at each of its facilities and affiliate facilities in Washington, including at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland,” a spokesperson for the AG told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.
“Taking commonsense steps to keep pregnant and nursing employees and their babies safe and healthy isn’t optional – it’s the law,” AG Nick Brown said in a statement. “A health care provider like Providence should know better.”…