Further, under the Family and Medical Leave Act FMLA of , a new parent including foster and adoptive parents may be eligible for 12 weeks of leave unpaid or paid if the employee has earned or accrued it that may be used for care of the new child. To be eligible, the employee must have worked for the employer for 12 months prior to taking the leave and the employer must have a specified number of employees. UPS refused the request and instead put her on unpaid leave.
Young sued the company contending that the company discriminated against her because she was pregnant. She based her claim on the fact that UPS offered accommodations to non-pregnant employees with similar doctor recommendations, such as workers who were injured on the job. Two lower courts disagreed. Both courts found that UPS was not required to offer the accommodation to someone because of their pregnancy and dismissed the case.
The Supreme Court found differently, and in a decision, the court reversed the lower court ruling and remanding the case back to the lower court. While it did not decide whether Young was discriminated against or not, it set forth the standard that courts should use in determining these types of cases. The standard is that a plaintiff who makes a claim that she is being discriminated against because of her pregnancy has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination.
If the plaintiff carries that burden, the employer has the opportunity to articulate some legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the difference in treatment of a pregnant employee over a non-pregnant employee. If the employer articulates such a reason, the plaintiff then has an opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the reason is not true and a pretext for discrimination.
It should be noted that even before UPS appeared before the U. Supreme Court, it had already changed its pregnancy accommodation policy and began treating pregnancy accommodations the same as other disability accommodations. It should also be noted that after the U. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content.
Search for:. Here are some examples found by the courts as acceptable reasons to discriminate in hiring: Mandatory retirement age requirements were allowed for airline pilots because safety was the primary concern and airlines could show that older pilots were significantly less safe once they reached a certain age. Churches were allowed to legally hire only members of their own church and faith and reject clergy from other religions.
An airline was allowed to hire only pilots of a certain religious background. Because one of the countries that the airline flew over prohibited, under punishment of death, the presence of people outside of a certain religion. Pregnancy Discrimination Pregnancy discrimination involves treating a woman an applicant or employee unfavorably because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth.
The same exception is allowed for job notices and advertisements, where the position at issue requires a worker of a particular religion, sex, national origin or age. The availability of a claimed BFOQ exception is determined on a case-by-case basis.
May Revised. CCH offers human resource management, payroll, employment, benefits, and worker-safety products and publications in print, CD, online and via the Internet. The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.
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