Infertility is Fertile Ground for Disability Discrimination Claims

I’ve written before about employers getting themselves in trouble for pregnancy discrimination for firing employees while undergoing fertility treatments (here and here). Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement of case involving a different kind of “infertility” discrimination — the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A Hawaiian resort retailer will pay $60,000 for discriminating against an employee because of her fertility treatments and eventual pregnancy.… According to the EEOC’s suit, a female retail buyer in Honolulu informed the company that she began treatments for infertility in 2011. Upon disclosure of her disability, a company official allegedly made offensive comments about her intentions and became even less receptive upon disclosure of her pregnancy later that same year. The buyer was disciplined after disclosing her need for fertility treatments, and then discharged.… 

Timothy Riera, director of the EEOC’s Honolulu Local Office, added, “Federal law protects workers who are discriminated against due to their infertility, a covered disability. Workers who undergo fertility treatments should be treated like any other employee with a disability—with equal and careful consideration of reasonable accommodation requests.”