Pa. Amazon warehouse worker sues company, saying she was fired for being pregnant

A Dauphin County woman who worked at the Amazon warehouse in Carlisle is suing the company for discrimination, saying she was illegally fired for being pregnant.

Malissa Saintus-Trammel, of Hummelstown, says the online shopping giant forced her to take unpaid leave due to her pregnancy when she didn’t require accommodations.

When she came back to work asking for reasonable accommodations related to lifting and squatting, Amazon provided them but required her to work a different shift which she was unable to do.

In her federal lawsuit, Saintus-Tremmel accuses the company of violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act for discriminating against her on the basis of sex, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act for not engaging in an interactive process to find accommodations for her.

She’s asking the court to order Amazon to compensate her for all lost pay and benefits, plus interest, in addition to actual damages and punitive damages.

According to the lawsuit:

Saintus-Trammell started working at the Amazon warehouse in Carlisle in August 2024 as an auto-picker.

“Everything was fine” with her job until Amazon placed Saintus-Trammell on unpaid leave and sent her home Jan. 16 after a coworker told the company Saintus-Trammell was pregnant, according to the lawsuit.

Saintus-Trammell hadn’t told Amazon she was pregnant and didn’t need any accommodations to continue working at that time. But, the company required her to obtain a doctor’s note before she could return.

When Saintus-Trammell received a doctor’s note on Feb. 19, 2025, she required a weight lifting restriction of no more than 20 pounds and could not bend or squat more than an hour.

Amazon accommodated those restrictions, according to the lawsuit, but would have to change her shift from 6:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Thursday, to 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

But Saintus-Trammell said those hours wouldn’t work because she needed to get her child ready for school and put them on the bus every morning. She told Amazon she could work the day shift as long as she could come in an hour later due to childcare.

She was terminated on March 13, according to the lawsuit.

PennLive could not reach an Amazon spokesperson for comment before publication.