U.S. Steel faces a lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) after the company allegedly took unlawful action against a pregnant worker who suffered a miscarriage after months of work assignments inconsistent with her doctor’s restrictions. The complaint claims that U.S. Steel violated the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by failing to provide the employee with "reasonable accommodations.”
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The commission noted that the individual began working for U.S. Steel in 2012 and, since about 2018, had worked as a mobile equipment operator at the company’s Minntac mine near Mountain Iron, Minnesota. The suit added that she typically operated a cleanup loader and served as a "fill-in” team lead leading up to her pregnancy around August 2023.
The worker informed her immediate coworkers about her pregnancy around August and, later, her shift manager in October. She provided a doctor’s note that said she could not operate heavy machinery, tracked vehicles or production trucks for the rest of the pregnancy. U.S. Steel allegedly responded by placing her on short-term sickness and accident leave for about a month without consulting her, while work within her restrictions reportedly remained available.
After she returned to work in November, the company allegedly instructed her to operate a fuel truck, despite the work conflicting with her doctor’s requests. However, immediate supervisors and coworkers reallocated her tasks among the crew of 60 to 70 workers and gave her alternative duties. The filing stated that management discovered the informal accommodations after about a week, ordered the redistribution of work to stop and insisted that she drive the fuel truck.
Following a meeting involving management, the worker and a union representative, U.S. Steel allegedly assigned her to light-duty work in an office under renovation with missing walls and did not provide a warming vest given to other workers in the area.
The worker experienced a miscarriage in January. After a two-week bereavement leave, the lawsuit claimed she faced retaliation, including removal from her cleanup loader role and assignment to "more difficult, less desirable jobs” in remote areas of the mine.
The lawsuit seeks compensation and damages determined at a jury trial.
U.S. Steel told IEN that it would not comment on pending litigation and added that it is "committed to ethical conduct and following the rule of law at all times.”
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