Law Legal Issues

Law Legal Issues

Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

Congress amended Title VII in 1964, the Civil Rights Act, enacted laws on discrimination based on pregnancy (PDA) in 1978. This act essentially made it clear that all the organizations are required to treat pregnant workers and non-pregnant workers equally. Consequentially, pregnant women are ought to be provided with similar benefits as non-pregnanat female employees and male workers. However, there are some cases that challenged this act.

Dekker v Stichting Vormingscentrum voor Jong Volwassenen

The case of Elisabeth Johanna Pacifica Dekker v Stichting Vormingscentrum voor Jong Volwassenen (VJV- Centrum) Plus, challenged the law of Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. In this case, Ms. Decker, during her pregnancy put forward her application for a job as a coach at a youth training centre. That company VJV took it into consideration that Ms. Decker was the most appropriate candidate for the job. On the other hand, as the recruitment committee was informed by Ms. Dekker about her pregnancy, the organisation declined its employment offer to Ms. Decker. The decision was justified by VJV on the basis that in case Ms. Decker was given the job the organisation would be liable to pay a percentage of the salary as identified by the Law of Denmark during her maternity leave. The training centre had a belief that since Ms Dekker informed the organisation regarding her pregnancy during the phase of application they would not be able to claim any possible expenses of maternity leave salary of Ms Dekker from their insurance organisation. As a result, VJV would not be able to cover all the cost of Ms Dekker's pregnancy and would be short of staff (Hedemann, 2007).

Kentucky Retirement Systems v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission challenging Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

The U.S. law Age Discrimination in Employment ...