Three Checks to Keep Chairs, Breaks, and Pumping Logs Out of Your Termination File
A practical audit for HR and managers: keep routine pregnancy accommodations out of documentation demands, attendance discipline, and termination files.
A termination file arrives with a chair request, a bathroom break, and a pumping log stapled to the attendance sheet. Those documents can turn a routine accommodation into a discrimination claim if the policy treats them like misconduct. The fix is a short audit that keeps pregnancy-related accommodations out of the punitive parts of the file. The three checks are: no doctor's note for routine predictable accommodations; accommodation breaks excluded from off-task or attendance discipline; and the accommodation request log reviewed before termination.
A termination file can turn a routine request into a claim
A Sept. 8 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York alleged that Amazon refused routine pregnancy-related modifications, including restroom access, an additional 15-minute break, and the ability to sit rather than stand. The EEOC told employers in 2024 that requiring medical documentation for routine pregnancy-related requests is not reasonable, citing examples such as water nearby, extra restroom breaks, eating or drinking breaks, and sitting while working. In February 2026, the EEOC found a reasonable basis to conclude that Amazon had treated a national group of female warehouse workers unfairly because of medical needs connected to pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions.
The complaint also alleged that Amazon applied its Punitive Attendance Policy to discipline or fire plaintiffs after they requested reasonable accommodations. One former employee alleged Amazon dismissed her after treating lactation-room pumping time as impermissible inactive time. Amazon said it provides pregnancy accommodations to tens of thousands of workers each year and granted over 99.9 percent of pregnancy-related accommodation requests during the previous year.
The audit is the step that keeps accommodation time out of attendance discipline.
The audit keeps routine accommodations separate
The audit targets the places where routine accommodations usually leak into discipline: the request form, the time record, and the termination file. Each check removes a common way a routine accommodation becomes evidence of bias.
- Ask whether the request is routine and predictable. If yes, approve it without a doctor's note.
- Mark accommodation time separately. Do not count it as off-task, idle, or attendance misconduct.
- Review the accommodation log before any termination decision. If the file shows a request, break, or pumping record, pause and check the policy.
If any check fails, the termination decision is not ready.
Run the audit before the decision is final
Put the audit in the reasonable accommodation policy, not in a side memo. Line managers should not be the ones deciding whether a chair is medical. They should route the request to HR or the accommodation owner. If the request is routine, the answer is yes, and the time is tagged as accommodation. If the request is not routine, the policy should say what documentation, if any, is needed before it is asked for.
The policy should define routine requests without listing every possible need. It should state that managers may not ask for a note on routine requests, that accommodation time is a separate time category, and that the accommodation log is part of the termination review. That is the minimum the policy should say.
Good practice is to train line managers on the difference between a performance issue and an accommodation issue. A performance issue is work not done, work done badly, or repeated absence without an approved accommodation. An accommodation issue is time taken because the policy approved it. If the employee has an approved accommodation, the attendance exception should not appear as a violation unless the policy says the accommodation was exceeded.
The log should show the date, the request, the approval, and the time category. The time category should be accommodation, not idle. The termination packet should include the log, or a note that no log exists, and it should not contain a note that says the employee was inactive during pumping time. If the log shows a request, the decision maker should see the approval before seeing the attendance exception. The decision maker should be able to point to the performance record, not the accommodation log, as the reason for termination. Send the file back for correction before anyone signs.