Every day, UPS delivery drivers in brown uniforms race their matching brown trucks all over Milwaukee to drop off and pick up packages. Virtually everyone has gotten deliveries from UPS, but it turns out that not every employee is treated equally by the world’s largest package delivery company.
United Parcel Service, Inc. recently settled a pregnancy discrimination complaint for $2.25 million. The company was accused of violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits workplace discrimination against pregnant women.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said that until 2015, UPS provided accommodations to workers who were hurt on the job. They were given light duties that included driving restrictions. Pregnant workers did not get those accommodations, however.
A UPS driver alleged that the failure to accommodate pregnant workers with light-duty assignments violated the PDA, and while she settled her case with the company, her agreement didn’t help other pregnant workers get accommodations that would have enabled them to continue working.
The new agreement includes payments to UPS employees who lost income between 2012 and 2014 because they didn’t receive accommodations. Their payments will essentially consist of the difference between the short-term disability pay they received and the amounts they would have gotten with accommodations that would have allowed them to work.
The agreement also stipulates that UPS is obligated to accommodate both union and non-union workers and that UPS is obligated to extend accommodations to childbirth and related medical conditions, the EEOC said in a statement.
If your Milwaukee employer has denied you a reasonable accommodation, or fired or demoted you, or denied a raise or promotion due to pregnancy, contact the law office of Alan C. Olson and Associates to discuss your legal options.