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Court Rules Morgue Worker Injured While Transporting Cadaver Can Proceed With Pregnancy Discrimination Claim.

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
04/03/2015
Employment Discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination
Tiana LaSalle is a van driver for the New York City morgue. LaSalle sued her employer alleging a variety of discrimination claims. Her chief complaint, however, appeared to be that the City refused her request for an accommodation with regard to lifting heavy objects during her pregnancy. In November 2011 Plaintiff was pregnant, and she provided her boss with a doctor's note informing him of the pregnancy. In December 2011, LaSalle told her...
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Supreme Court Clarifies Pregnancy Discrimination Act Claims in Young v. UPS

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
03/26/2015
Employment Discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination
On March 26, 2015,  the Supreme Court announced its decision in Young v. UPS, setting forth a new standard for how employees may prove a claim of pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 575 U.S. ____ (2015).  In Young,  the Court faced the issue of how to interpret the second clause of the PDA, which states: women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions...
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UPS To Deliver Light Duty To Pregnant Employees

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/31/2014
Pregnancy Discrimination, Supreme Court Decisions
In advance of the Supreme Court's oral argument on a former employee's pregnancy discrimination case (Young v. UPS, Inc., U.S. No. 12-1226), United Parcel Service (UPS) has announced that, effective, January 1, 2015, it will make light duty available to pregnant workers with lifting or other restrictions on the same level as it offers to employees who need light duty because of worker's compensation injuries.  In explaining this change in protocol,...
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EEOC Issues Enforcement Guidance on Pregancy Discrimination

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
07/16/2014
Pregnancy Discrimination
For the first time since 1983, and partly addressing issues pending before the U.S. Supreme Court (see Alex Berg’s July 9 blog titled, “Supreme Court Will Decide What Accommodations Employers Must Make For Pregnant Employees”), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on Monday issued new enforcement guidelines on pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) that also cover possible workplace...
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Supreme Court Will Decide What Accommodations Employers Must Make for Pregnant Employees

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
07/09/2014
Disability & Leave, Pregnancy Discrimination, Supreme Court Decisions
Until recently, the United Parcel Service (UPS) utilized the well-known slogan, “What can brown do for you?” After deciding last Monday to hear Young v. UPS during its next term, the Supreme Court will be faced with the question of “what brown must do” for its pregnant employees under federal law. (The Fourth Circuit’s decision and the briefs filed in the case (to date) can be found here.) In Young, the plaintiff, Peggy Young, was covered...
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City Not Required to Accommodate Employee’s Financial Stresses Under the ADA

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/07/2014
Disability & Leave, FMLA, Pregnancy Discrimination
An employee’s potential increased day-care costs are not a pregnancy-related condition requiring accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a federal district judge in Minnesota.  As a result, a city police department was not required to accommodate a request by a pregnant employee for a swapped time-shift.  McCarty v. City of Eagan, No. 0:12-cv-02512 (D. Minn. Apr. 28, 2014). Brea McCarty worked her way up to the...
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Parental Leave Act Passed by Maryland General Assembly

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
04/10/2014
Disability & Leave, Pregnancy Discrimination, State Law
The 2014 session of the Maryland General Assembly came to a close Monday night, ending a 90-day term in which state lawmakers passed numerous laws, including legislation raising the state’s minimum wage.  Maryland’s minimum wage will increase to $8/hour on January 1, 2015, and gradually rise to $10.10/hour in 2018. Included among the State’s new laws is the Parental Leave Act, which requires certain employers to provide unpaid parental leave...
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Maryland Commission on Civil Rights Issues Poster for New Pregnancy Discrimination Law

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
01/13/2014
Agency Activity, Pregnancy Discrimination
As we have previously reported, on October 1, 2013, the Reasonable Accommodations for Disabilities Due to Pregnancy Act took effect for Maryland employers who have 15 or more employees. The new law requires that, unless an employer can show undue hardship, it must provide pregnant employees with various categories of accommodations upon request, including: changing the employee’s job duties; changing the employee’s work hours; relocating the...
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Nursing Home's Limited Accommodations Deemed Unlawful Pregnancy Discrimination

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
01/04/2014
Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination, Pregnancy Discrimination
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that a nursing home’s policy of accommodating only restrictions from work-related incidents could be pretext for pregnancy discrimination.  Latowski v. Northwoods Nursing Center, No. 12-2408 (6th Cir. Dec. 23, 2013). Jennifer Latowski was employed as a certified nursing assistant (“CNA”) by Northwoods Nursing Center in Michigan.  Her doctor recommended a 50-pound lifting...
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Weight Watchers Thrown for a Loss in EEOC Lawsuit

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
12/13/2013
Pregnancy Discrimination
A federal judge recently denied Weight Watchers’ attempt to dismiss  a Pregnancy Discrimination Act lawsuit filed against it by the EEOC.   EEOC v. The WW Group, Inc., d/b/a Weight Watchers, Case 2:12-cv-11124 PDB-MAR (E.D. Mich. Dec. 2, 2013). The suit claims that the company did not permit Wendy Lamond-Broughton (“Broughton”) to apply for a job because she was pregnant.  The company defended on the grounds that Broughton was not...
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