AG Brown sues Providence Health & Services over illegal treatment of pregnant and nursing employees

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown today sued Providence Health & Services in King County Superior Court, alleging that Providence repeatedly failed to provide reasonable accommodations required under state law to pregnant and nursing employees.

The office has investigated incidents going back to 2021 and found employees, including many nurses, were routinely denied their right to an accommodation. Even when Providence granted an accommodation on paper, Providence often failed or refused to implement the accommodation, denying employees the ability to sit more frequently in jobs that otherwise required standing, schedule flexibility for prenatal visits, limits on heavy lifting, and a private space to express breast milk.

The suit also alleges Providence violated state law by retaliating against employees who sought reasonable accommodations by terminating them, forcing them to go on leave, or assigning them to more difficult duties.

"Taking commonsense steps to keep pregnant and nursing employees and their babies safe and healthy isn't optional-it's the law," said Brown. "A health care provider like Providence should know better."

Providence is the largest health care provider in the state of Washington, operating more than 35 hospitals across the state, as well as various outpatient facilities. It reported having $1.9 billion in net assets in 2024 and brought in nearly $10 billion in revenue in 2025. Despite its size and sophistication as a healthcare provider, the investigation found that Providence has routinely fallen short of its legal obligations to its pregnant and nursing employees.

Employees often waited up to a month after requesting a pregnancy accommodation without any response from Providence. During that time, they were expected to continue to work without accommodation, putting their health and the health of their pregnancy at risk.

The accommodations required under Washington law that Providence allegedly failed to provide include:

• Changing a no-food-or-drink policy;
• Allowing more frequent sitting; and
• Limiting lifting to 17 pounds or less.

In addition to these mandatory accommodations, employees can ask for other accommodations they may need, such as:

• Job or schedule restructuring;
• Modifications to an employee's equipment or work station;
• Transfers to less dangerous or physical work;
• Scheduling flexibility for prenatal visits;
• Extra break time to express breast milk; or
• Other reasonable accommodations on a case-by-case basis.

Employers must provide these additional accommodations unless they can demonstrate that doing so would require significant difficulty or expense. In many cases, Providence made no attempt to show that accommodating its employees would have been significantly difficult or expensive; it simply denied the accommodation.

Under the law, employers are forbidden from requiring medical certification before granting some of these accommodations. However, Providence repeatedly required employees to demonstrate their need for an accommodation with a note from their treating healthcare provider, another violation of the law.

Some of the accommodations denied to Providence employees were bitterly ironic. Thousands of pregnant patients go to Providence facilities for prenatal visits that keep them and their pregnancies safe, but Providence denied its employees the opportunity to attend their own prenatal visits. Patients at Providence Swedish's First Hill campus can use a state-of-the-art facility to help new parents with breastfeeding, but Providence's own employees were denied adequate time and convenient, private spaces to express breast milk.

The incidents detailed in the suit, dating back to at least 2021, violate the Healthy Starts Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination. Prior to filing suit, the Attorney General's Office approached Providence about these concerns and sought to resolve the matter, but those discussions were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, seeks to prevent Providence from continuing to violate state law and to secure damages to compensate employees whose rights were violated.

If you experienced pregnancy discrimination while employed by Providence, or one of its affiliates (e.g., Kadlec, Swedish, or PacMed), we want to hear from you. Contact our Civil Rights Division by emailing [email protected] or by calling (833) 660-4877. Current and former employees may also submit a complaint using the AGO's online form.

Read the complaint.

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