A US jury has ordered a logistics company to pay $22 million (nearly ₹207 crore) in damages in a case involving the death of a newborn baby. The case was reported by Local 12 WKRC-TV.

The case dates back to February 2021, when a pregnant Total Quality Logistics (TQL) employee was declared high-risk by her doctors. They ordered her to rest at home and work remotely. However, TQL initially refused her request to work from home.

The approval eventually came through after a third party had stepped in. But, by the time she got the approval, it was too late.

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The employee suffered complications, was hospitalised and gave birth to baby Magnolia at just 20 weeks and six days. The baby died a few hours after birth.

A Hamilton County jury found that TQL's refusal to accommodate the employee's medical needs directly led to the baby's death. It ordered the logistics company to pay $22 million.

TQL has disagreed with the verdict and said it is reviewing its legal options. The company says that it remains committed to the health and well-being of its employees.

"We extend our condolences to the Walsh family. We disagree with the verdict and the way the facts were characterized at trial. We are evaluating legal options and remain committed to supporting the health and well-being of our employees," the publication quoted a TQL spokesperson as saying.

Social media reactions Social media users responded to the verdict. Many of them have slammed the company over its strict no-WFH policies.

“That's just how TQL is for real, churn & burn young college graduates & kids straight out of HS with university culture & a promise to be rich. Their turnover rate is absolutely wild, & for the few people that work there & actually make money, their commission splits when compared to other brokerages don't stack up,” wrote one of them.

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“What was TQL thinking? I’ll bet, or at least hope, there’s a manager and HR person with TQL on their resume looking for a job,” commented another user.

One user wrote, “How many others at that TWL location were working from home at that time? Not a good move on the TDL mgmt part. Your company image was ALREADY bad. This makes you look MUCH WORSE.”