U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently agreed to a pay $45 million settlement in a discrimination lawsuit alleging mistreatment of pregnant employees.
The settlement was announced on Tuesday in a news release from the lawyers of the employees who filed the class action lawsuit. If the settlement is finalized, nearly 1,100 women will benefit from it, which also includes the CBP agreeing to enact reforms to address the alleged discriminatory practices, according to the lawyers’ statement.
The case was filed in 2016 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). It alleged that the CBP had a widespread practice of placing officers and agriculture specialists on light duty when they became pregnant, without giving the employees an opportunity to stay in their position with or without accommodations.
Light duty is for “eligible employees who are unable to perform the essential duties of their position because of an injury, illness sustained off duty, or pregnancy, and who are capable of performing alternative duty assignments,” according to the 2024 Collective Bargaining Agreement Between the National Border Patrol Council and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Light-duty employees are eligible for a promotion recommendation, the 2024 agreement says.
The employees who filed the complaint allegedly missed out on overtime, Sunday or evening pay, and opportunities for advancement, according to the suit.
The CBP argued that it was not standard policy to put pregnant women on light duty and suggested that any misunderstanding of the policy was only from a handful of offices, according to the Associated Press (AP) which cited a judge’s ruling last year certifying the case as a class action.
“Announcing my pregnancy to my colleagues and supervisor should have been a happy occasion — but it quickly became clear that such news was not welcome,” Roberta Gabaldon, the lead plaintiff in the case, said in Tuesday’s news release. “The assumption was that I could no longer effectively do my job, just because I was pregnant.”
While the CBP could not comment on the case, it praised its nearly 7,000 women law enforcement officers in a statement to the AP on Wednesday. It also said its parental leave policy adheres to federal law and managers within the agency are being trained to comply with it.
The employees’ lawyers said that CBP will have to make reasonable accommodations for its pregnant employees such as ensuring uniforms are available for them. Additionally, there will be training on how the light-duty policy should be implemented and a three-year period during which lawyers can go back to the EEOC if problems continue.
While the settlement still has to be finalized by a judge, the employees’ lawyers said they were optimistic that it would be accepted after talking to many of the women in the suit.
