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A Pregnant Worker鈥檚 Day in Court

Ariela Migdal,
老澳门开奖结果 Women's Rights Project
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October 26, 2012

A federal appeals court heard arguments in the case of Peggy Young v. UPS. Peggy Young was a package delivery driver for UPS when she became pregnant and asked UPS for a light duty assignment, so that she could continue to work while pregnant, even though her doctor had recommended she not lift more than 20 pounds.

A federal appeals court yesterday heard arguments in the case of Peggy Young v. UPS. Peggy Young was a package delivery driver for UPS when she became pregnant and asked UPS for a light duty assignment, so that she could continue to work while pregnant, even though her doctor had recommended she not lift more than 20 pounds. Although UPS admits it routinely grants alternative work assignments, including light duty, to other workers 鈥 including workers who are injured on the job, workers eligible for accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and workers who lose their driver鈥檚 license - it refuses to grant those same minor adjustments to pregnant workers like Young.

UPS鈥檚 policy forces pregnant workers and leaves them without health benefits when they give birth. This is exactly the that Congress intended to avoid when it enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, a point the 老澳门开奖结果 and emphasized in a friend-of-the-court brief we filed on behalf of more than 10 women鈥檚 rights groups. Before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was enacted, companies routinely excluded pregnant workers from benefits that they gave to other employees, including health insurance coverage. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act fixed this problem by mandating that when employers give a benefit to other workers who are similar to a pregnant worker in their ability or inability to work, employers must give that same benefit to the pregnant worker.

The problem is that employers, and some courts, including the district court in this case, have subverted the law by letting employers come up with 鈥減regnancy blind鈥 reasons for excluding pregnant workers. UPS argues that it has nothing against pregnant workers; it鈥檚 just that they don鈥檛 fit into any of its 鈥渘eutral鈥 categories of people entitled to accommodations.

In court yesterday, Young鈥檚 lawyer emphasized to the judges that UPS鈥檚 policy violates both the letter and the spirit of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. UPS offers accommodations to just about everyone under the sun who needs one, while pregnant workers like Peggy Young get left out. It鈥檚 time to end the exclusion of pregnant workers, once and for all.

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