Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Repost: Court Rules that Federal Law Bars Employers from Discriminating Against Breastfeeding Employees

Legal Momentum recently represented female construction workers in a discrimination case and helped protect the right to receive breastfeeding accommodations on the job.
"Earlier this year, Legal Momentum filed to intervene on behalf of four female sheet metal workers in a lawsuit filed against Vamco Sheet Metals, Inc., a New York-based construction company that manufactures and installs sheet metal. The lawsuit was originally filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in September of last year, after the agency’s investigation concluded that the company had discriminated against its female employees. The investigation was prompted by the charges filed by four women, each of whom reported being terminated from her job due to her sex.

Legal Momentum’s court papers also noted that one of the women reported being discharged by the construction company after she notified her supervisor that she was a nursing mother in need of time and space to express milk for her child.

In their court papers opposing Legal Momentum’s intervention, defendants argued that the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not protect employees who are terminated after requesting breastfeeding-related accommodations. The Magistrate Judge disagreed, ruling that employers who take adverse employment action against nursing employees may be found to violate the Pregnancy Discrimination Act" (Legal Momentum, 12 June 2014).

Read the full press release and ruling at https://www.legalmomentum.org.

No comments:

Post a Comment