Summary: On this episode, we review the Court's recent decision in Young v. UPS. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) provides that “women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes * * * as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k). In July 2006, Young sought, and UPS granted, a leave of absence so that she could undergo a round of in vitro fertilization. The round was successful, and Young became pregnant. In October 2006, Young gave her supervisor and UPS’s occupational health manager a note from her midwife recommending that she not lift over twenty pounds during her pregnancy. Young explained that she wanted to return to work, and “that she was willing to do either light duty or her regular job.” The manager explained that “UPS offered light duty for those with on-the-job injuries, those accommodated under the ADA, and those who had lost [Department of Transportation] certification, but not for pregnancy,” and that “UPS policy did not permit Young to continue working as an air driver with her twenty-pound lifting restriction.” In November, Young spoke to UPS’s division manager, who “told her she was ‘too much of a liability’ while pregnant and that she ‘could not come back into the [facility in which she worked] until [she] was no longer pregnant.’" As a result, Young was required to go on an extended, unpaid leave of absence, during which she lost her medical coverage. She did not return to work until June 2006, just short of two months after she gave birth. The question presented is: Whether, and in what circumstances, an employer that provides work accommodations to nonpregnant employees with work limitations must provide work accommodations to pregnant employees who are “similar in their ability or inability to work.”
