EEOC Sues Barnes & Noble College Booksellers for Disability Discrimination

SAN FRANCISCO - National retailer Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, a New Jersey-based company, violated federal law by failing to provide a reasonable accommodation for an employee with post-partum depression and then fired her because of her disability, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

According to the EEOC's suit, a worker employed as a cashier and bookseller at the company's Hayward, California store went into pre-term labor in February 2021. After receiving a diagnosis of postpartum depression from her physician, she contacted human resources to request unpaid leave beyond the 90-day maximum permitted under the company's leave policy. Instead of working with the employee to find a reasonable accommodation, the company encouraged her to resign and fired her in April 2021.

"Under federal law, employers should engage in the interactive process and provide reasonable accommodations for women who need them due to pregnancy-related disabilities," said Kena Cador, a senior trial attorney in the EEOC's San Francisco District Office. "Encouraging employees to resign does not meet the company's affirmative obligation to engage in a good faith dialogue with their worker to find a reasonable accommodation."

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which not only prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of disability but also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with a disability, unless doing so would cause undue hardship for the employer. The EEOC filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (EEOC v. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, Civil Action No. 3:25-cv-08142), after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation process.

Christopher Green, director of the EEOC's San Francisco District Office, said, "Workers with pregnancy-related disabilities, such as post-partum depression, are entitled to reasonable accommodations unless the employer can prove that doing so would be a significant expense or difficulty. We will hold employers accountable to the law."

Green also noted this suit with complex intersections between the ADA, pregnancy-related limitations, and inflexible leave policies is an emerging and developing issue identified as a national priority under the EEOC's Strategic Enforcement Plan.

For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The EEOC's San Francisco District Office is responsible for processing charges of discrimination, administrative enforcement, and the agency's litigation in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Idaho. The district has offices in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division; the EEOC is responsible for investigating charges against state and local government employers before referring them to DOJ for potential litigation. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government's employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov. Stay connected with the latest EEOC news by subscribing to our email updates.