By: Ryan Lonergan
In the 2017 fiscal year, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 3,174 pregnancy discrimination claims.[1] Although lower than the 32,309 allegations of race discrimination and 26,934 claims of sex discrimination, they are comparable to the 3,825 claims of religious discrimination and 3,102 allegations of color discrimination.[2] The EEOC has worked endlessly helping women warehouse workers with pregnancy discrimination.[3] Warehouses are amongst the fastest growing workplaces in the country, employing more than a million Americans.[4] Retailers and large corporations, like Amazon, demand high speed at low costs.[5] Pregnancy discrimination is at the forefront of women’s obstacles working manual labor.[6] Some employers deny expecting mothers’ promotions or pay raises; other employers fire them .[7] Women working physically demanding jobs at warehouses are subject to greater risks, such as miscarriages.[8]
It is safe for pregnant women to work, but women who lift extensively at work have “a slight to modest increased risk of miscarriage.”[9] According to medical research, a link exists between physically demanding work and fetal death.[10] Since 2012 lawmakers have introduced bills in every congressional session that would give pregnant women the same or similar protections that disabled Americans receive from the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).[11] The ADA requires employers to reasonably accommodate those whose fit the ADA’s criteria.[12] Unfortunately, to date only one federal law exists that aims to protect pregnant women, which is the Pregnant Discrimination Act (PDA).[13] The PDA states that a company must accommodate pregnant workers’ requests if they already do so for other employees with similar abilities or inabilities to work.[14] So, the PDA allows companies that do not give light work requests to employees in similar positions, have no obligation to do so for pregnant women.[15]
The PDA is around forty years old, yet has not been updated.[16] Unlike the ADA, the PDA lacks a reasonable accommodation requirement specific to conditions related to pregnancy.[17] A narrow reading of the ADA allows pregnant women with pregnancy related medical complications or impairments to reap the protections of the ADA, but they must be treated the same as people with similar impairments.[18] Not all pregnant women experience medical complications, thus pregnant women without medical complications are not entitled to this.[19]
In 2015, Peggy Young worked for United Parcel Service (UPS) and sued UPS in federal court.[20] Young alleged that UPS subjected Young to pregnancy discrimination in violation of the ADA and the PDA by refusing to accommodate Young’s pregnancy-related lifting restriction.[21] The Supreme Court did not expand the protection of pregnant workers to those in the ADA, since that is for the legislation to handle.[22] Additionally, the Court called the EEOC’s guidelines they submitted to the public for pregnant workers into question.[23]
Men cannot relate to the risk’s pregnant workers experience. Hence, men, can objectively view the issues with the PDA. As a man, it is clear to me that the PDA is in dire need for an update. Lives and health should not be sacrificed for more efficient workers. Activists should advocate for accommodations of pregnant women, mirroring the ADA, providing pregnant workers with reasonable accommodations without undue detriment to companies.
[1] Pregnancy Discrimination Charges FY 2010 – FY 2017, EEOC, https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/pregnancy_new.cfm (last visited Oct. 31, 2018).
[2] EEOC Releases Fiscal Year 2017 Enforcement and Litigation Data, EEOC (Jan. 25, 2018), https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/1-25-18.cfm.
[3] Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Natalie Kitroeff, Miscarrying at Work: The Physical Toll of Pregnancy Discrimination, NY Times (Oct. 21, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/21/business/pregnancy-discrimination-miscarriages.html.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Esther Wang, For Some Workers, Pregnancy Discrimination Can Lead to Miscarriages, Jezebel (Oct. 22, 2018), https://jezebel.com/for-some-workers-pregnancy-discrimination-can-lead-to-1829906271.
[7] Claire Zillman, Yes, pregnancy discrimination at work is still a huge problem, Fortune (July 15, 2014), http://fortune.com/2014/07/15/pregnancy-discrimination/.
[8] Pregnancy Discrimination Charges FY 2010 – FY 2017, EEOC, supra note 1.
[9] Am. College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists, Employment Considerations During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period 119 (2018).
[10] Id.
[11] Silver-Greenberg & Kitroeff, supra note 3.
[12] Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 (2018).
[13] Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k) (2018).
[14] Id.
[15] Joanna L. Grossman, Pregnancy, Work, and the Promise of Equal Citizenship, 98 Geo. L.J. 567, 570 (2010).
[16] Reva B. Siegel, Pregnancy as a Normal Condition of Employment: Comparative and Role-Based Accounts of Discrimination Cutler Lecture, 59 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 969, 973 (2018).
[17] ADA, supra note 12.
[18] Annalyn Kurtz, 8 rights of pregnant women at work, CNN: Business (July 28, 2014), https://money.cnn.com/2014/07/25/news/economy/rights-pregnant-workers/index.html.
[19] Id.
[20] Adam Liptak, UPS Worker’s Pregnancy Discrimination Suit Reinstated by Supreme Court, NY Times (Mar. 25, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/us/ups-workers-pregnancy-discrimination-suit-reinstated-by-supreme-court.html.
[21] Young v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 135 S. Ct. 1338, 1341 (2015).
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
The L•E•Jer 