Ohio Court of Appeals: Affirms OCRC Ruling that Employer Illegally Terminated Pregnant Employee Who Did Not Qualify for Leave Under Employer’s Policy

Last month, the Licking County Court of Appeals reversed the trial court and affirmed a ruling by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission that a nursing home employer violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act when it terminated a licensed practical nurse who sought medical leave on account of her pregnancy because she had yet not been employed for one year and did not qualify for any leave of absence under the employer’s leave of absence policy. Nursing Care Mgt. of Am., Inc. v. Ohio Civ. Rights Comm., 2009-Ohio-1107. The Court agreed that the Ohio Civil Rights Act requires Ohio employers to provide pregnancy/maternity leave even if does not otherwise provide any leaves of absence to male or female employees under similar circumstances. In other words, the Ohio Civil Rights Act does not merely require that pregnant employees be treated the same as male employees, it requires the employer to provide maternity leave even if similarly disabled male employees are not entitled to a leave of absence.

According to the court’s opinion, the plaintiff nurse was hired by the nursing home, which provided medical and other leaves of absence to employees only after they had completed one year of service. Before the plaintiff had completed eight months, her physician indicated that she required a medical leave of absence because of her pregnancy and could return six weeks after delivery; she gave birth days later. The employer terminated her three days after she gave birth because she had not completed one year of employment, but called and offered her re-employment just a few weeks later (before she was physically able to return to work according to her own physician). The plaintiff never returned the employer’s calls or returned to work. Instead, she filed a Charge of Discrimination with the OCRC and remained unemployed for another nine months.

The Court agreed with the OCRC that the OCRA requires employers to provide a reasonable amount of maternity leave to all employees and cannot impose a length of service requirement, even if the requirement applies equally to all employees. In particular, Ohio Administrative Code § 4112-5-05(2) provides ““(2) Where termination of employment of an employee who is temporarily disabled due to pregnancy or a related medical condition is caused by an employment policy under which insufficient or no maternity leave is available, such termination shall constitute unlawful sex discrimination.”

Indeed, Ohio Administrative Code § 4112-5-05 (6) provides that even “if the employer has no leave policy, childbearing must be considered by the employer to be a justification for leave of absence for a female employee for a reasonable period of time. Following childbirth, and upon signifying her intent to return within a reasonable time, such female employee shall be reinstated to her original position or to a position of like status and pay, without loss of service credits.”

The Court did not address whether the plaintiff had sufficiently mitigated her damages by refusing to accept the employer’s unqualified offer of reinstatement.

Insomniacs may read the full decision at