Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Young v. UPS. In Young, a pregnant UPS employee was
forced to take unpaid leave when UPS refused to accommodate her pregnancy-related
lifting restriction. The company’s policies allowed some, but not all,
non-pregnant employees with similar lifting restrictions to be transferred to
light duty assignments. Justice Breyer wrote for the majority in this split
decision, which sided with the employee and called for application of the
familiar McDonnell-Douglas analysis to claims alleging that an employer
accommodated some workers but not pregnant workers. Many
commentators agreed with Justice Scalia’s strongly-worded dissent, in which
he
stated his belief that the majority had used the “Supreme Wand” to
construct a “deliciously incoherent” analytical framework for pregnancy
accommodation cases.
In other developments:
Discrimination
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The gender discrimination and retaliation case that recently gripped Silicon Valley ended with a verdict in favor of the defendant, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, among others, criticized Indiana’s new “religious freedom” law that allows businesses to discriminate based on personal interpretations of religious freedom.
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The EEOC issued statements in support of the Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. UPS, the pregnancy accommodation case discussed above.
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While Forbes was discussing how the gender-based U.S. wage gap is the highest in the industrialized world, The New York Times covered how a wage gap exists even in the female-dominated field of nursing.
Technology
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CNN Money discussed a new tech solution that promises to eliminate unconscious bias in job ads.
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NPR is testing a new algorithm that helps determine who to hire based on a candidate’s voice.
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Laurie Ruettimann explained that correlation does not mean causation when using big data analysis to aid human resources decision.
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Wired covered the fact that apps are capturing location data at an alarming rate.
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Inc. demonstrated why bosses can’t get even when their employees gripe about work on social media.
Leave
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A Texas judge put a halt to the U.S. Department of Labor’s new same-sex spouse definition under the Family Medical Leave Act.
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Microsoft announced that all of its suppliers with more than 50 employees will be required to offer paid time off to their employees.
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U.S. News & World Report asked if paid family leave is the next issue for women voters.
Posted by: Kate Bischoff
