Pregnancy Discrimination
The success of a company relies heavily on their employees. These are the individuals who were hired by an organization, who in their mind see fit to propel the company toward its objectives and goals. Apart from the missions the company may have in which they make clear during the hiring process, employees also have their own aspirations. These ambitions are not only relative to their career but also relative to their personal life. Such goals can be happiness, health, or financial stability where they can support themselves or their family.
Throughout this research paper, focus will be set on women in the workplace who have the goal of healthily completing their pregnancy term, maintaining their own health after the delivery of their newborn and the social injustice many women receive in the United States that is known as pregnancy discrimination. In order for this discrimination to be exemplified as something to be avoided in the workplace, legislation and human resource management principles will be examined.
Throughout the history of the United States, there have only been three laws enacted to provide a safeguard for employees who are new or expecting parents (National Partnership for Women and Families [NPWF], 2016). These laws are the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA), Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act (NPWF, 2016). The PDA rejects any discrimination based on pregnancy as far as any facet of employment goes (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], n.d.). According to the EEOC (n.d.), these phases of employment include “hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, such as leave and health insurance, and any other term or condition of employment.” Under the FMLA, first time parents, who include foster and adoptive parents, may be qualified for paid or unpaid leave to recover from child birth, and care for a new child or a spouse that has considerate health conditions from pregnancy (NPWF, 2016). As of March 23, 2010, employers have been required to administer a justifiable break time and place for women who need to attend to their breast milk by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act (United States Department of Labor [DOL], n.d.).
Like any law that exists in our country to protect the well being of our citizens, many of them are still broken everyday. Since 2011, the EEOC has filed 44 litigation cases connected to pregnancy discrimination involving workers from a variety of workplaces such as childcare, education, staffing, social services, manufacturing, food/beverage service, and wholesale supply (EEOC, n.d.). Violations such as refusing to hire, promote, or fire workers after learning they are pregnant, and retaliating against employers who complained about pregnancy discrimination are some examples that have been carried out by employers (EEOC, n.d.). The number of lawsuits filed in the past six years are very concerning and requires not only more attention at the federal level but also employers across the country. As mentioned before, employees are vital to the operations of a company. Without them, nothing functions the way it is supposed to.
According to Dias (2011), “Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of employing people, training them, compensating them, developing policies relating to them, and developing strategies to retain them” (p. 2). In HRM, it is very important to apply the law in all aspects that the Human Resource (HR) department is responsible for managing (Dias, 2011). For a company to make sure they are providing a healthy workplace for everyone, EEOC laws need to be taken into consideration from the start of the recruitment process when HR managers develop job descriptions. Today, it is not unusual for organizations to include an EEOC statement as part of a job announcement, stating their policy on non-discrimination and is mandatory that HR visibly posts these policies throughout the work environment (Dias, 2011).
That being said, HR managers need to take a step further to make sure all working members understand the law. In the recruitment process, a job analysis is used to help put a job description together by finding certain tasks and responsibilities that are required for the specific job the company is seeking to fill (Dias, 2011). Many approaches are used including a Job Analysis Questionnaire where employees answer a list of questions that pertain to their position (Dias, 2011). Using this method can be monumental if implemented in the manner where a questionnaire is used to gauge the knowledge of employees on issues pertaining to pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. Results from this method would not only create more of an awareness for employees but also show signs if training programs are being effective or not. This will help companies make sure their staff is properly administering proper break times for nursing mothers, not requesting medical clearances from pregnant employees to perform jobs and not using derogatory language toward expecting workers.
Even with legislations put in place to protect expecting parents, taking paid sick days, weeks of paid family leave, medical leave or have reasonable accommodations made to continue to work throughout a pregnancy, relies on where you work (Ness, 2016). The requirements to be eligible for these policies are subject to ones employment status, state of residency, and the overall size of the company to name a few (Human Resources Inc., n.d.). Debra L. Ness (2016), President of the National Partnership for Women and Families did not hold back when she claimed, “if you don’t have a boss who supports fair and family friendly workplaces, chances are, you’re out of luck” (Failing our Families, para. 2).
Today, 72 percent of women are employed before becoming new parents and 59 percent of women who work full time during their pregnancy, return to work three months after giving birth (NPWF, 2016). This points out the fact that women’s careers on top of their earnings are important to the financial stability of their families’ (NPWF, 2016). Expecting the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child are events that one hopes to be exciting but often carries stress to the employee who is expecting (NPWF, 2016). Financial struggles and job security are common stressors that expecting employees face due to the failing culture and workplace policies (NPWF, 2016). In an annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, money and work, are often the most expressed sources of stress in our country (Dias, 2011). With this valuable data, HR departments must make it a priority to support their pregnant workers.
According to Dias (2011), “distress is the term used for negative stress” (p. 374). If it is not handled accordingly, an employee’s performance can diminish quickly. Imagine what it would be like for a pregnant worker who has to deal with stress at work on top of feeling fatigued from her body developing an offspring. This could have negative implications on her health. The same can be said for a mother who has to take many breaks to express milk. These are all stressors that make expecting or new parents doubt their job security. Other health hazards at work that could affect pregnant workers are chemical and fragrance sensitivities. Exposure to certain scents and fragrances can cause nausea or headaches. A fragrance free workplace may not be needed, but allowing them to take a break for a minute or two from discomfort should be encouraged.
These situations should be made into examples for managers to use their emotional intelligence (EI), which plays an important role in good communication (Dias, 2011). Managers who are able to use their EI effectively cultivate good relationships with their employees because they see and understand the emotions being expressed by them. This may be challenging for managers to have with pregnant workers, but setting time aside to listen fosters a comforting work environment for them.
Many pregnancy discrimination cases not only are caused by situations in the workplace but also as the result from gaps in the federal laws that protect expecting and new parents. For instance, employers who have less than 15 workers do not apply to PDA (NPWF, 2016). This means that a pregnant woman who works for a company with this characteristic will not receive protection from the PDA which requires employers to treat pregnant women equally as other employees who become sick or temporarily disabled (EEOC, n.d.). Even the FMLA has room for improvement besides the fact that is has been successfully used over 200 million times since 1993 (NPFW, 2016). To be eligible for FMLA, an individual has to work for an employer that has over 50 workers as well as have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the previous year (NPWF, 2016).
For an organization to be considered a great place to work, they must try to make it clear that all employees are important. Considering the gaps in the PDA and FMLA, employers should focus on these matters so that they offer a great compensation package for their employees who will be new or expecting parents. Before a compensation package can be developed, the HR department needs to analyze what their organizations philosophy is concerning this package (Dias, 2011). Questions that arise from this process include whether state and federal laws are met within the compensation package, or if wages are fair from a worker’s perspective (Dias, 2011). Fostering a healthy workplace for all employees while considering the amount of women in the workforce should bring up plans involving accommodations associated to pregnancy in the workplace (Marcum & Perry, 2015). This can be done by formulating a compensation package that goes further from what laws already have set for new and expecting parents. A good example would be to offer more fringe benefits such sick leave, paid vacation time and daycare services (Dias, 2011). Matching compensation with the organization’s values can be very challenging but if done successfully, it could increase recruitment, retention, and motivation of future and current employees (Dias, 2011).
The amount of women who are working in our country has had a significant rise and are showing no signs of stopping. The amount of litigations involving pregnancy discrimination within the last decade demonstrates that women not only need more help from federal and state policies, but also from businesses across our nation. Organizations and their HR departments have the ability to change this culture in the workplace. They are the ones who have the closest relationship with their employees compared to the people making the laws. HR departments must pay attention and keep an open mind when tackling the needs of their pregnant, expecting, or new parent employees. Welch says it best when he reminds us that “HR is important in good times, HR is defined in hard times” (as cited in Dias, 2011, p. 2).