Supreme Court Cases 2014: Court to Determine if UPS Discriminated Against Pregnant Woman
The Supreme Court will hear a case brought by former driver for United Parcel Service who says the shipping company refused to accommodate her during her pregnancy, the Associated Press reported. The justices' verdict could affect many women who continue to work throughout their pregnancies, the news service noted.
Driver Peggy Young had asked for a temporary reassignment to avoid lifting heavy packages when she became pregnant in 2006. UPS refused to accommodate her, and Young did not return to work until two months after she delivered her baby. She now lives with her 7-year-old daughter, Triniti, in Lorton, Virginia.
The nation's highest court must now decide whether the company violated the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which has been in place for 36 years, according to the AP.
"I was willing to work," Young has said, according to NBC's Washington affiliate. "I was willing to do my regular job, and they wouldn't let me, period. ... We shouldn't be made to choose between our job and having a child."
Young said that she lost her health insurance while she was out on leave and could not file for unemployment benefits because she had not been fired, the network said. The woman eventually returned to work for UPS, but today no longer works there.
Young argues that the shipping company offered some other employees light-duty work but that UPS would not accommodate her in a similar manner. The Atlanta-based company announced it will begin to offer pregnant women light duty starting in January. But UPS insists it complied with the law in Young's case.
The Supreme Court will look at whether UPS was required to accommodate the now 42-year-old Young, given that it approved temporary assignments to other workers, including some who had been injured on the job or had a condition that was covered under the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Associated Press explained.
Young's position is supported by the Obama administration and what the AP called an "unusual array of liberal and conservative interest groups." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, is among those who back UPS.
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