Feds sue trucking company over failure to accommodate pregnant truck driver at Illinois location

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against a trucking company for allegedly forcing a truck driver to take leave rather than making accommodations to allow her to continue working.

On September 16, 2025, the EEOC filed suit against R&L Carriers over violations of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).

The PWFA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related restrictions, unless it would cause an undue hardship for the business.

The EEOC alleges that at the company’s Matteson, Illinois, location, R&L Carriers “discriminated against a truck driver when it forced her to take leave rather than let her continue to work during her pregnancy.”

Officials say that the driver informed her employer of her pregnancy and requested an accommodation for a 20-pound lifting restriction. This restriction would have allowed her to continue to work, the EEOC said, but the company denied the request.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the truck driver employee, including compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief against the employer to prevent similar unlawful conduct in the future. 

“Under the PWFA, employers must engage in an interactive process to determine what reasonable accommodations are available for employees with pregnancy-related limitations,” said Victor Chen, an EEOC spokesperson. “The law also specifically bars employers from forcing employees to take leave when the employer could have offered another reasonable accommodation that would allow them to keep working. It was designed to prevent what happened here: pregnant workers being pushed out of the workforce.”