Supreme Court Hears Pregnancy Discrimination Case: What You Need to Know About Young v. UPS
What SCOTUS Is Deciding
The Court will be deciding whether, and in what circumstances, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act requires an employer that provides work accommodations to non-pregnant employees with work limitations to provide work accommodations to pregnant employees who are similar in their ability or inability to work. In other words, can a company provide some employees with work accommodations but refuse to provide pregnant women with such accommodations?
USA Today reports that UPS defended its actions in court by arguing that Young’s pregnancy did not meet any of the company’s three criteria for an accommodation:
1. Young did not suffer an on-the-job injury.
2. She did not have a disability recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
3. She did not suffer a loss of federal certification to drive.
The company argues that people with other conditions that do not fall into those categories would have been treated the same as Young, so there was no discrimination. Young contends, however, that she is no different from drivers who were given accommodations to recover after a stroke or to treat hypertension, or drivers who temporarily lost their driver’s licenses. Just as each of those drivers’ conditions were temporary, so was hers, so treating her differently due to the nature of her condition violated the law.
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