Employment Law

Supreme Court Will Decide Scope of Protection for Pregnant Workers in Young v. UPS

Published on: December 3, 2014 | by Emma Quinn-Judge

When she became pregnant in 2006, Peggy Young’s doctor told her not to lift more than 20 pounds during the early part of her pregnancy, and no more than 10 thereafter. Upon hearing of this restriction, Young’s employer, UPS, refused to let her stay in her job, as she occasionally – albeit rarely – needed to lift packages more than 20 pounds. Young responded that she could keep working: she could do her “regular job” with occasional assistance from willing coworkers or she could be assigned to “light duty” like other employees to whom UPS offered light duty when they faced similar work restrictions. UPS refused to accommodate Young; a division manager told her she was “too much of a liability” while pregnant and instructed her not to return until she “was no longer pregnant.” Young took an extended unpaid leave of absence and eventually lost her medical coverage.

The Supreme Court today hears oral argument in Young v. UPS, Young’s case alleging that UPS violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) by failing to provide her with the same accommodations it provided non-pregnant workers who were similar to Young in their ability to work. (The many briefs in the case are here.) The PDA, which was enacted in 1978, amended Title VII to clarify that discrimination based on pregnancy is a form of sex discrimination; the statute further provides that “women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes . . . as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work.” Young argues that the PDA requires an employer that accommodates non-pregnant employees with work limitations to provide pregnant women who are “similar in their ability or inability to work” with the same accommodations.

Harvard Business School Study Shows that Subtle Gender Discrimination in Workplace Can Lead to Significant Disparities in Senior Leadership Roles

Published on: November 20, 2014 | by Monica Shah

Researchers at Harvard Business School (HBS) and Hunter College recently issued a report based on their survey of more than 25,000 HBS graduates on issues related to work, family responsibilities, and the gender gap in senior management positions in the workplace. The study concludes that these highly educated and ambitious professional women are and have been “leaning in,” well before Sheryl Sandberg coined the phrase, despite having significantly more childcare responsibilities than their male peers. Yet, these women have not earned senior management roles at the same pace as their male counterparts. These results make clear that gender discrimination is still rampant in the workplace, even in the upper echelons of corporate America.

The survey showed that HBS men have been given more powerful leadership roles than their female counterparts. Specifically, the men were significantly more likely than women to have direct reports, profit-and-loss responsibility, and positions in senior management. However, the gender gap between men and women cannot be explained by the conventional wisdom that women “opt out” of ambitious career tracks to be home with their children. Approximately 74 percent of HBS women in Gen X (ages 32 to 48) are working full time, and of both Gen X and Baby Boomers (ages 49-67), only 11 percent of women surveyed stayed at home full-time to take care of their children. Interestingly, these figures are almost identical to a study conducted almost two decades earlier by Deloitte & Touche, which showed that 70% of women who left Deloitte continued to be employed full time and fewer than 10% were out of the workforce to care for children.

The Federal and Massachusetts Anti-Discrimination Agencies Both Say That Parental Leave Must Be Provided Equally to Men and Women

Published on: November 13, 2014 | by Emma Quinn-Judge

Just over 36 years ago, on October 31, 1978, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) was signed into law, extending the protections of Title VII to pregnant women. This summer, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued new enforcement guidance on pregnancy discrimination, explaining how both the PDA/Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act provide protections for pregnant women in the workplace.

While much of the response to the EEOC’s new enforcement guidance has focused on the provisions that require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant women, another important aspect of the guidance – one that affects both men and women – has received substantially less attention. In the new guidance, the EEOC clarifies that under Title VII men and women are entitled to parental leave on an equal basis. To be precise, “similarly situated men and women” must receive parental leave “on the same terms.” What does this mean? It means that any leave provided to a new mother that extends beyond the “period of recuperation from childbirth” must also be provided to a new father. In other words, any leave provided for the purpose of bonding with a child or providing care for a young child – as opposed to leave that is provided for the purpose of recuperating from childbirth – must be provided equally to men and women. Moms and dads get the opportunity to bond with and care for their babies.