In 2008, Peggy Young sued United Parcel Service (UPS), a package delivery service, claiming discrimination on the basis of her pregnancy. When Young became pregnant, her doctor instructed her not to lift packages over 20 pounds. When Young requested this of UPS, she was denied this accommodation

(Barnes & Schulte, 2015). “They told me basically to go home and come back when I was no longer pregnant,” Young said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I couldn’t believe it” (Sherman, 2014). She sued UPS in 2008, left the company in 2009, and then lost the discrimination case in two lower courts prior to the case going before the Supreme Court in 2014

(Harkins, Knapp, Kaplan, & Park, 2015; Sherman, 2014).

Young’s case hinged on the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. This law was passed by Congress in 1978 to include pregnancy discrimination as a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act has two clauses which are critical to the case. First, it states that protections against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must also apply to pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions. Second, the law says that employers must treat “women affected by pregnancy . . .

the same for all employment-related purposes . . . as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work” (EEOC, 1978; Harkins et al., 2015).

The matter in Young’s case was whether UPS discriminated via its policy to provide temporary light-duty work for employees who

(a) had on-thejob injuries,

(b) were considered disabled under federal law, or

(c) lost their federal driver certification. “If you were painting your house and fell off a ladder, or if you had a ski accident, that wouldn’t qualify for restricted light duty. That’s where pregnancy fell at that time. It was not covered in any state law except California’s,” stated Ross, spokeswoman for UPS (Sherman, 2014).

UPS had hired Young as a part-time driver whose primary task was to deliver overnight letters by 8:30 a.m. UPS requires people in these positions to have the ability to lift packages as heavy as 70 pounds. Young explained that she rarely handled packages over 20 pounds and that her job typically involved handling letters that sat on the passenger seat of her van. UPS told Young she could not continue in her job and did not qualify for a temporary assignment (Harkins et al., 2015; Sherman, 2014).

The Supreme Court agreed to hear this case and ruled on the case in 2015, as the case would aid in the interpretation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. The wording in question in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 says that employers need to treat pregnant women the same way they treat “other persons not so affected [by pregnancy] but similar in their ability or inability to work” (Zillman, 2015). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Young in March of 2015 with six justices voting for Young and three justices siding with UPS. Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion and explained that if an employer does not accommodate a pregnant woman but does accommodate other employees “similar in their ability or inability to work” that employer must have a valid and non-discriminatory reason for doing so (Barnes & Schulte, 2015). The three dissenting justices explained that they thought the majority ruling not only went beyond the intention of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act but that it also placed new restrictions on employers (Zillman, 2015).

Discussion Questions:

1. According to Katherine Kimpel, an employment discrimination expert, 75% of women joining the workforce today will become pregnant at least one time while they are working, and many of them will keep working during their pregnancies (Zillman, 2015). In what ways does this ruling help these women?

2. How could UPS have responded differently to Young’s request to avoid the discrimination lawsuit?

3. In what ways is pregnancy similar to and different from other temporary conditions that can diminish an employee’s ability to do his/

her job?