An amended complaint filed in Gloucester County Superior Court alleges that the operator of the Holiday Inn in Swedesboro violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by penalizing Maryssa Kearney after pregnancy and maternity leave, failing to provide a suitable place to express breast milk and ending her employment. Kearney, 36, was a former assistant manager at the hotel. The pleading was filed July 29, according to NJ.com.
The accommodation dispute
Kearney says she returned from maternity leave on Dec. 3, 2025, after beginning leave June 28. She alleges that, after her return, management questioned her attendance and schedule even though the hotel had previously allowed her to avoid weekend work and shifts extending beyond 3 p.m. In April, she says, she requested workplace arrangements for pumping breast milk and submitted a written retaliation complaint.
The complaint alleges that management then moved her from assistant manager to an inspector position. Kearney also provided a doctor's letter advising against excessive lifting and strenuous cleaning, according to the filing. She says a manager warned that she might not have a job there if she could not perform those tasks.
Kearney further alleges that the hotel's employee handbook contemplated a private pumping room and a refrigerator for breast milk, but that neither was provided to her. She says she used an office instead and was repeatedly interrupted while pumping.
What the complaint says about the termination
On June 1, Kearney says, a supervisor interrupted her pumping session to tell her that an upper-level manager wanted to meet. She went to that office and was fired the same day. According to the complaint, management cited clocking in or out while away from the property and leaving early. Kearney disputes those reasons, including because the hotel's timekeeping application required workers to be on hotel grounds to clock in, and argues that the stated grounds concealed retaliation for her pregnancy, leave and pumping requests.
Kearney began working at the hotel as a housekeeper in September 2023 and later became an assistant manager. The complaint also describes earlier positive employment milestones, including an employee-of-the-quarter award in September 2024 and a performance raise the next month. She is seeking reinstatement, back and front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and other relief.
The legal claims
New Jersey law treats breastfeeding as a protected category and requires employers to provide reasonable break time and a private location near the work area that is not a toilet stall, according to the New Jersey Breastfeeding Coalition. The state law applies to employers of every size, according to Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg; the Division on Civil Rights has also issued guidance on pregnancy and lactation accommodations.
Federal law separately provides most employees with reasonable time to express milk and a private, non-bathroom space for up to one year after a child's birth under the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act, according to the U.S. Department of Labor information cited in the original report. The lawsuit alleges that Pureland Inn Inc. and two hotel managers violated the New Jersey statute; the allegations have not been resolved in court.
A separate state case
New Jersey has previously advanced a different breastfeeding-accommodation complaint. In a Jan. 10, 2020, decision, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights found probable cause in allegations that North Bergen-based VCNY Home terminated a worker three days after she requested to be excused from a work trip as a breastfeeding accommodation. That matter involved a different employer and circumstances from Kearney's hotel lawsuit; the decision does not provide a statewide annual count of pregnancy-, childbirth- or breastfeeding-related complaints.
Pureland Inn operates the Swedesboro Holiday Inn, which is owned by IHG Hotels & Resorts. An IHG spokesperson directed questions about the case to Pureland Inn, while Pureland Inn did not respond to NJ.com's requests for comment, that outlet reported.
