A Creve Coeur nonprofit that serves thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is facing a federal lawsuit alleging it forced a pregnant employee onto medical leave and fired her. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the complaint against St. Louis Arc on September 29, accusing the organization of violating the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The case, formally titled EEOC v. St. Louis Arc, Inc. and filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, centers on Marnisha Scott, a former community support specialist at the nonprofit. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Scott was sent home by her supervisors after telling them her doctor had restricted her from lifting more than 25 pounds during her pregnancy. She was told she would not be able to return to her role until a doctor cleared her, per the complaint.
Scott applied for leave shortly after being sent home, the Post-Dispatch reports. The EEOC complaint alleges that St. Louis Arc fired her after she sought leave.
The EEOC's Accommodation Claims
The lawsuit also addresses St. Louis Arc's accommodation practices.
The EEOC's complaint further alleges that St. Louis Arc routinely granted light-duty work and modified assignments to employees with temporary lifting restrictions tied to workplace injuries or other non-pregnancy medical conditions, but refused to extend the same option to Scott, according to the EEOC. The agency also argued that Scott never actually needed to carry the full 25 pounds she was expected to lift, per the Post-Dispatch.
David S. Davis, director of the EEOC's St. Louis District, said forcing pregnant workers onto leave is not an accommodation and treats them as second-class citizens, according to the Post-Dispatch. St. Louis Arc did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the paper reports.
A Federal Law Still Being Tested in Court
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act took effect on June 27, 2023, with final EEOC regulations following in June 2024. It requires covered employers with 15 or more workers to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations tied to pregnancy or childbirth unless doing so would cause undue hardship, according to the agency's own summary of the rule. The EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 specifically designated PWFA enforcement a priority, targeting cases where workers requesting pregnancy accommodations were instead pushed onto medical leave, per McAfee & Taft.
The lawsuit seeks corrective remedies and monetary relief on Scott's behalf. St. Louis Arc is a Creve Coeur-based disability-services provider in the St. Louis area, according to the organization.
Praised as a Top Workplace Months Before the Suit
The lawsuit lands just two months after St. Louis Arc was named among the top three Best Places to Work in the Big Companies category by the St. Louis Business Journal, an honor drawn from an internal employee survey conducted earlier this year.
A separate Hoodline story on 3D-printed gadgets described students helping a St. Louis woman with daily tasks, with MO Better Foundation connecting the students and clients; St. Louis Arc's Capable Kids and Family program appeared only in a separate historical passage about a 2023 adapted-toy event. The new federal complaint, however, adds St. Louis Arc to a growing list of regional employers facing PWFA enforcement, following a similar EEOC suit this year against toy maker Step2 over light-duty requests and forced leave.
It remains to be seen how St. Louis Arc will respond to the EEOC's complaint, which seeks corrective remedies and monetary relief on Scott's behalf.
