This was one lawsuit that the air ambulance industry could have done without. Failure to accommodate a pregnant employee’s request for light duty has landed a large service provider in a legal soup. AMR, which is a pretty big player in the medical flight industry, is in the middle of all the controversy. Going into details of the problem, the woman had asked for light duty at work. She was working out of the company’s Spokane office. She had even provided a doctor’s note to back her request. However, the company, apparently, refused her light duty. The pregnant lady, it is reported, was asked to either take unpaid leave or resume duty without any modifications.
The Air Ambulance Company Employee Approached the EEOC
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC is the body that – among other things – ensures gender discrimination does not occur at workplace. EEOC, after investigation, revealed that it found AMR had a ‘robust practice’ that offers light duty to its personnel suffering from accidental injuries and temporary disabilities. However, the air ambulance organization had not extended the same courtesy to the pregnant woman. In doing this, the agency revealed, that AMR had violated a major tenet of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
The Reasons are not Still Clear
Air ambulance is an industry that runs on compassion and the drive to do more for the society. This incident sticks out like a sore thumb at the moment. It is not clear why an organization of AMR’s size would invite such unnecessary troubles. Whether it was a corporate decision or just an employee holing a managerial position taking a bad decision is still unclear. The organization too has not come forward with an explanation, thus far, as to why the incident occurred in the first place. The industry is currently awaiting a response from the air ambulance company.
