Frontier Airlines Settles Lawsuit Over Policies on Pregnancy, Breastfeeding

Denver-based Frontier Airlines has reached a settlement over complaints about its policies regarding employees who are pregnant or breastfeeding — a controversy outlined in our May 2016 post, "Frontier Told Flight Attendant to Wait Ten Hours to Pump Breast Milk."

Frontier pilots Brandy Beck, Shannon Kiedrowski, Randi Freyer and Erin Zielinksi first took their concerns to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before filing a lawsuit against the carrier in 2019, at the same time a separate complaint was filed on behalf of flight attendants. The ACLU of Colorado, the national ACLU, New York-based law firm Holwell Shuster & Goldberg LLP, and Towards Justice, a nonprofit law firm that focuses on economic justice, all worked on the pilots' case in the ensuing years.

The ACLU of Colorado isn't commenting on the settlement beyond a release noting that "Frontier Airlines has agreed to several policy changes that will better address the needs of pregnant and lactating flight attendants." but omitting any mention of payments to plaintiffs or who will cover attorneys' fees.

As for Frontier, which does not admit any liability related to the settlement, Jacalyn Peter, its vice president of labor relations, states: "We’re proud to be at the forefront of accommodating the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in the airline industry. Thanks in part to advances in wearable lactation technology, the parties were able to reach an amicable resolution of this case that does not jeopardize public safety."

Sara Neel, senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Colorado, was more expansive in a December 2019 interview. "This is obviously an important case to try and bring equality to an industry that is, certainly for the pilots, very male-dominated," she said. "We want to provide room for women in that field, and we want to help flight attendants who want to nurse their children — who want to find a way to keep their job and exercise that option as a mother."

The ACLU produced a video about the then-pending case, with Beck front and center.
The first lawsuit challenged a number of requirements placed on pilots. "They go on unpaid leave at 32 weeks of pregnancy regardless of their individual situation," Neel emphasized in the 2019 interview. "They're required to leave their job and stop making money at the time they need it most. So our claim is that Frontier is treating pregnant workers differently from other workers who are temporarily unable to fly. We're requesting that Frontier put a policy in place for temporary ground assignments, so they don't have to stop earning a paycheck." She also noted that "they're not provided any paid parental leave."

As for flight attendants, represented in the second lawsuit by plaintiffs Melissa Hodgkins, Stacy Rewitzer, Renee Schwartzkopf and Heather Crowe, "they're required to go back to work very quickly after they give birth, and if they're choosing to nurse their children, they face some serious hardships to figure out how they can pump [breast milk] throughout their workday," Neel said. "Frontier doesn't allow pilots or flight attendants to pump on the airplane, and there's not enough turnaround time to pump while they're on the ground. That's caused several of our plaintiffs past medical issues. The result of not pumping can be very painful and can lead to other medical conditions, as well as the reduction of milk supply and an inability to continue nursing."

Neel also noted that "some of our clients decided to forgo nursing upon returning to work because they knew how difficult it would be, despite wanting to nurse their children."

Here's a summary of the policies Frontier has agreed to update and clarify under the settlement:

• To keep in place recent changes to its policies, including those permitting flight attendants to safely pump during flight with the use of wearable breast pumps.

• To clarify that under Frontier’s Dependability Policy, which governs attendance, [Family and Medical Leave Act]-qualifying absences related to pregnancy are excused and not subject to disciplinary action.

• To provide a regularly-updated list of lactation facilities at Frontier’s base locations to flight attendants who give birth (and direction on where to find information regarding lactation facilities at all other airports to which Frontier flies), and to provide a system to address feedback from flight attendants regarding the adequacy of lactation facilities at base locations.

• To clarify Frontier’s policy that it accommodates flight attendants unable to fly due to pregnancy or lactation on the same terms that it accommodates flight attendants with other medical conditions rendering them unable to fly (including by providing medical leave or temporary ground assignments, if such assignments are offered by Frontier).

In a statement about the settlement, Melissa Hodgkins says: "I’m glad that flight attendants who want to breastfeed will be given the time and space to pump breast milk in a healthy, sanitary way. Future flight attendants won’t have to worry about how they are going to fit in pumping between flights or wonder where they will be able to pump safely. I gave up breastfeeding to provide for my family, and no one should have to make that choice again."

Click to read Randi Freyer, et al., v. Frontier Airlines; Melissa Hodgkins, et al., v. Frontier Airlines; and Brandy Beck's EEOC filing.

This post has been updated to include a comment from Frontier Airlines.