On July 15, federal regulators sued Northeast Ohio toy maker Step2, accusing the company of illegally disciplining and then firing a pregnant assembly worker at its Perrysville plant. The complaint says Step2 counted pregnancy-related medical absences against the worker under a general attendance policy, denied basic accommodation requests and ultimately terminated her employment in July 2024. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, is casting the case as an enforcement test of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII.
What the EEOC alleges
According to EEOC filings, the assembly worker, who was assigned to Step2’s Perrysville facility, took approved leave for chronic mental-health conditions and missed shifts for pregnancy-related medical issues but was still disciplined under the company’s attendance policy instead of having those absences excused. The suit says Step2 also turned down her requests to sit briefly between assembly tasks, take more frequent breaks and avoid highly strenuous stations, before firing her in July 2024.
The agency filed the case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (Case No. 1:26-cv-01562), a filing that legal outlets also noted in court records, including Law360.
Agency response
Debra M. Lawrence, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Philadelphia District, underscored that employers have to offer reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related limitations and cannot hide behind neutral-sounding rules if they refuse to do so.
"An employer cannot illegitimately deny an employee reasonable accommodations to a general attendance policy and then use the policy to fire her," Lawrence said in the agency release. The EEOC said it brought the suit after conciliation efforts with the company failed.
Step2's local footprint
Step2 is headquartered in Streetsboro and runs manufacturing plants in both Streetsboro and Perrysville, where it produces preschool toys and plastic home goods. Step2 highlights those regional facilities on its website and stresses its role as a local employer in northern Ohio.
Local business coverage has noted that the case adds to a string of EEOC actions testing how employers handle accommodation requests for pregnant and disabled workers. Crain's Cleveland Business reported on the federal filing and outlined the allegations against the company.
What the law requires
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which took effect on June 27, 2023, requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless doing so would create an undue hardship. The law often overlaps with the ADA and is built around an interactive process for working out accommodations rather than defaulting to unpaid leave. Legal summaries and federal guidance say that structure has given regulators new tools to challenge discipline tied to medical absences when it is routed through strict attendance policies.
For a detailed rundown of the statute and its interpretive guidance, see the Legal Information Institute.
The EEOC has said it filed the Step2 suit only after conciliation efforts broke down, and the case will now move into the usual federal court scheduling and motion practice. As of July 21, Step2 had not posted any public statement about the litigation on its website; the company’s About page lists its facilities but includes no mention of the lawsuit.
