News for Employers:
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act

By Catherine Reuben   April 14, 2015

Is it unlawful for an employer to offer light duty to persons who are injured on the job, but not to pregnant workers? In a March, 2015 decision interpreting the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has answered this question “maybe.”

The case, Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., involved a driver for United Parcel Service (UPS) whose job required her to lift packages weighing up to 70 pounds.  When the driver became pregnant after several miscarriages, her doctor restricted her from lifting more than 20 pounds during the first 20 weeks of her pregnancy and 10 pounds during the remaining weeks.  UPS informed the driver that the lifting restrictions would prevent her from doing her job and that she did not qualify for a temporary alternative job.

The driver later sued, claiming that, since UPS offered light duty to employees in some other circumstances, including employees who were injured on the job and employees with disabilities covered by the ADA, UPS was required to offer light duty to pregnant workers as well.

​To learn about the details of the employee’s claims, the outcome of this case, and the implications this case has on employers, check out the full copy of our alert by clicking on the link below.

HRW Alert – Pregnancy Discrimination Accommodation

Thank you for reaching out to contact Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP (“the Firm”). Before you send your message, we wanted to make sure you are aware of the following. Please do not send any confidential information in response to this link. Sending an e-mail to the Firm or any of its attorneys does not give rise to an attorney-client relationship, and will not be deemed to disqualify the Firm from undertaking any engagement for a current or future client. Before any attorney-client engagement may be formed, the Firm will need to check for possible conflicts of interest, you will need to consider whether you wish to retain the Firm as counsel, and we will need to consider whether we wish to accept the potential engagement. In the meantime, the Firm reserves the right to represent parties with interests adverse to you.

Accept Decline