Pregnancy Discrimination and Accommodation One Year After Young v. UPS

Practical Law Legal Update w-001-8180 (Approx. 8 pages)

Pregnancy Discrimination and Accommodation One Year After Young v. UPS

by Practical Law Labor & Employment

Law stated as of 29 Mar 2016 • USA (National/Federal)

Resources to help employment lawyers prevent pregnancy discrimination and accommodate employees who are pregnant, recovering from childbirth, or suffering from pregnancy-related complications.

On March 25, 2015, the US Supreme Court established a new "significant burden" standard for analyzing claims under the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), holding that a pregnant worker claiming disparate impact under the PDA can survive summary judgment if she can show that the employer's policies impose a significant burden on pregnant workers and the employer's reasons justifying them are not sufficiently strong (Young v. UPS, 135 S.Ct. 1338 (2015)).

In the year since the Young v. UPS decision, several states have passed laws requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations for employees who are pregnant or suffer from pregnancy-related conditions, including:

New York, which amended its state Human Rights Law to require employers that have four or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with pregnancy-related conditions, unless the proposed accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer's business (see Legal Update, Jackson Lewis: New York Enacts Gender Equality Laws).
Rhode Island, where employers:
- must accommodate an employee's or prospective employee's pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition; and
- may not require pregnant employees to take leave if a reasonable accommodation can be provided
(See Legal Update, Jackson Lewis: Rhode Island Employers Must Accommodate Workers with Pregnancy-Related Condition.)
Nebraska, which:
- prohibits discrimination against workers due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and
- requires employers to accommodate pregnant employees who show a known physical limitation related to pregnancy or childbearing
(See Legal Update: Jackson Lewis: Nebraska to Require Reasonable Accommodations for Pregnant Workers.)
District of Columbia, which announced increased efforts to enforce DC's Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The statute requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions (Legal Update, Jackson Lewis: District of Columbia Agencies To Enforce New Protections for Pregnant Workers).

In addition, an increasing number of cities and states have passed paid leave laws that allow pregnant workers, among others, to take paid time off to care for themselves or their family members. For more information, see Paid Sick Leave State and Local Laws Chart: Overview.

Practical Law has many resources to help employers and employment lawyers prevent employment discrimination and accommodate pregnant workers. For general information about pregnancy discrimination and parental leave, see:

Plaintiffs' counsel may also find the following Standard Documents useful:

Practical Law also has model policies with integrated drafting notes to help employers implement or revise policies addressed pregnancy and parental leave. For more information, see the following Standard Documents:

California:

Colorado: