Pregnancy Discrimination

1 Pages 374 Words

On October 31, 1978 the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, became law (Title VII, Sec 2000e.k). The intent of the amendment is to make it illegal for employers to discriminate against women for being pregnant or for reasons related to pregnancy. That means that if a pregnant woman can perform the duties of the job for which she is applying, or is already working, then conditions of employment are met and the pregnant woman must be considered equally among other employees or applicants.
If an employee becomes pregnant and is unable to perform her usual duties because of the pregnancy, the employer must consider her a temporarily disabled employee, provided she meets the requirements of disability. Those requirements may include verification by a doctor that the employee is unable to perform her usual duties because of the pregnancy. The employer may offer light duty assignments, or the employee may be placed on disability or unpaid leave. However, the pregnant employee can legally work so long as she can continue to perform her job as normally required.
For purposes of insurance, costs of pregnancies must be covered the same as other medical conditions. If the insurance plan has provisions to reject conditions that exist at the time coverage commences, then medical expenses may be denied for those pregnancies. The medical benefit must be the same for spouses of employees as it is for the employees.
The benefits received by employees on temporary medical leave are the same that must be applied to employees on leave for pregnancy. In 2002 a settlement was reached between the EEOC and Verizon, in favor of women who had taken maternity leaves of 2 to 12 weeks, between 1965 and 1983 (EEOC v Verizon). The settlement makes whole female employees who were denied service credit that they would have received, had they been on other types of medical leave.
Pregnancy must be cons...