Congress is looking to ensure that expecting mothers are not forced out of their jobs by urging the Supreme Court on to recognize that pregnant workers are entitled to reasonable accommodations such as light duty, according to The Associated Press.
The lawmakers are pushing legislation to make the pregnancy protections explicit in federal law, and plan to argue that the lower appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled incorrectly by siding with UPS, who made delivery driver Peggy Young of Lorton, Virginia, to take unpaid maternity leave rather than provide a less strenuous position as her doctors advised, the AP reported.
The case comes as women now make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, and of the women entering the workforce, three-quarters will be pregnant and employed at some point, according to the lawmakers, the AP reported.
More than 120 members of of Congress, made up of 99 Democratic lawmakers from the House, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and 24 senators, are behind the legislation, the AP reported.
Young, 42, should have received the light work accommodation because current federal law provisions are designed to "ensure that pregnant women were no longer treated as second-class citizens on the job," they wrote, according to the AP.
The 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which bars employers from discriminating based on pregnancy, childbirth or related conditions requires that pregnant workers be treated at least as well as other employees similar in their ability or inability to work, but is silent as to whether it specifically requires reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, the AP reported.
UPS says its accommodation policies are "pregnancy-neutral," allowing light-duty assignments only in cases in which employees were injured on the job, had a disability as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act or whose injuries made them ineligible for commercial driver's licenses, according to the AP.
President Barack Obama has called on Congress to pass the lawmakers' bill, led by Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., to make the pregnancy protections unmistakable and clear, the AP reported.
