Jane Doe started bleeding in the middle of her shift. 🩸 She worked as a sales associate at a Walgreens in Alexandria, Louisiana, and in addition to being pregnant, she lived with diabetes and hypoglycemia.
When she told her manager that she urgently needed to see a doctor, the response was not help: it was a no.
They told her she could not leave until a replacement showed up, even though the manager himself and a shift leader could have covered her position without a problem.
A coworker asked her to wait. The manager later reprimanded her for having already requested “too many accommodations”.
Following her doctor’s advice, she resigned on the spot so she could seek medical attention. That same afternoon, December 2, 2020, she suffered a miscarriage.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued Walgreens in 2022 for pregnancy and disability discrimination.
In March 2024, the chain agreed to pay 205,000 dollars and committed to training its managers in ten cities across the country.
The money cannot give this worker anything back — but it sets an uncomfortable precedent for any company that puts a shift before the health of its people.