The Rampant Problem of Pregnancy Discrimination, Part 1

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro.

[1] This is the Daily.

[2] Today, women are being sidelined, passed over for promotions and races, and fired when they complain.

[3] A Times investigation finds that pregnancy discrimination is rampant inside America's biggest companies.

[4] It's Tuesday, June 26th.

[5] So about six months ago, there was this explosion of Me Too cover.

[6] And my colleague, Jessica Silvergreenberg, and I were at the same time hearing stories of pregnancy discrimination on our beats.

[7] And we thought it was something we had to look into.

[8] Natalie Kidrow -F.

[9] covers the economy for the times.

[10] And that's around the time that we came across this woman, Oetisha Woolbright.

[11] I was born in Fort Myers, Florida.

[12] and then my mom moved me and my brother to Jacksonville, and I was a very young girl.

[13] She grew up in the 80s in Florida.

[14] You know, my mom worked hard.

[15] She worked two jobs.

[16] She took care of me and my brother, you know, there was never no government assistance or anything like that.

[17] She wasn't wealthy, but she said she had everything she needed.

[18] I mean, I had a pretty decent life growing up as a child.

[19] I can't complain.

[20] She started working early, as a teenager.

[21] I got a job at KFC.

[22] Then as a server at a diner.

[23] And then from the diner, I transferred to a car wash detailing place.

[24] And after that job, she gets pregnant and has a baby.

[25] That was my first child.

[26] And then she has two more kids.

[27] And Otisha is a single mom at this point, and she's looking for something a little more stable, a job that pays better, that comes with benefits, a place where she feels like her.

[28] she can move up the ladder.

[29] And one day, she's shopping at Walmart.

[30] And I was walking around, and I saw my friend, and I was like, hey, how are you doing?

[31] And she was like, I was like, since you've been working here, this is all the conversation played out briefly?

[32] And I was like, can you help me get a job here?

[33] And as she hears more about Walmart, it seems like this perfect opportunity.

[34] It's everything she was looking for.

[35] It's a big company, and she thinks she can grow there.

[36] So she applies for the job, and she gets it.

[37] She gets the job.

[38] That's when I started working at Walmart.

[39] I was happy.

[40] I was really happy because I was going to be getting paid more money than what I usually get paid.

[41] I was, you know, just the big picture.

[42] I just saw the big picture, the big picture.

[43] So she starts this new job.

[44] She's working in the deli and the bakery at Walmart.

[45] And the bakery, you know, requires us to go in the freezer, take all the frozen bread, take the boxes out, lift the boxes, you know, move stuff around and get what bread we're looking for.

[46] And then on the deli side, you take out your rotisserie chickens, which they store them inside, like, a cooler, like, and they come inside this box.

[47] The box weighs between 35 to 50 pounds, so they're pretty heavy.

[48] It's pretty hard work, but Otisha says she likes it, and she finally feels like she's on the path to a stable career.

[49] That's when I was able to move into my apartment.

[50] My first apartment, by myself, just me and my children.

[51] So, yes, I was happy.

[52] But then one day, things started to change.

[53] I was in the freezer, taking out the bread to get ready to start my cycle over again to get them ready for the next day so that I can put them inside to get them proof than ready for the morning next morning.

[54] And that's when the sharp pain hit and I went to the bathroom and I seen that I was bleeding.

[55] I had not said nothing, but when I went to the hospital, that's when they told me I was pregnant.

[56] And they wanted me to stop doing heavy lifting to avoid miscarriage.

[57] I believe it was like nothing that weighs more than 20 pounds.

[58] And the doctor tells you that specifically.

[59] Don't lift boxes, because if you lift boxes, you might miscarry.

[60] You might lose the baby.

[61] Yes.

[62] I left the emergency room, went home, went to sleep, woke up, went to work, waited for the manager to come in to talk to her about what was going on.

[63] And they explained to her about what the doctor said, showed her the paperwork.

[64] I told her, the doctor told me no heavy lifting for more than 20 pounds.

[65] but my job consisted me to do heavy lifting.

[66] And what did she say?

[67] Oh, my goodness.

[68] She said a lot of things.

[69] Like what?

[70] She told me Demi Moore did somersaults on the stage of nine months pregnant.

[71] Running, you know, you got to take it easy.

[72] I took up a little gymnastics.

[73] Demi Moore, the actress.

[74] Yes, the actress.

[75] I'm not Demi Moore.

[76] Would you like to see him?

[77] Yes, I would.

[78] Demi Moore, ladies and gentlemen.

[79] Oh, my God.

[80] Here we go.

[81] So your manager said, Oetitia, look, I'm sorry, your doctor said you can't lift boxes, but I once saw Demi Moore on television, very pregnant, doing acrobatics on a stage.

[82] So therefore, you should be able.

[83] She didn't even apologize about nothing.

[84] She just compared me to Demi Moore and told me that Demi Moore did that on the stage.

[85] And if Demi Moore could do it, there shouldn't be no problem with me working.

[86] It's Demi Moore, kids.

[87] We'll be right back there.

[88] You also put it to me as, you know, if I can't do the job, then I can go out, walk out the doors.

[89] So I really didn't have a choice.

[90] So I'm licking at it like this.

[91] I have this place.

[92] I have my rent.

[93] I'm pregnant.

[94] I just have to be careful.

[95] I'm just going to go ahead on and keep the job and do what I'm supposed to do and just take it.

[96] I just had no choice, but just weather the storm.

[97] So she just kept going to work.

[98] She kept lifting those heavy boxes of bread and chicken, and things were fine for a little while.

[99] I was picking up one of those heavy boxes of chicken, rotissory chicken, let's be more specific.

[100] And when I lift, I had this sharp shooting pain on my back, on the left and the right side, and it shot down, and it went from all of the, way up from my shoulder blade, all the way down my leg to my foot.

[101] I almost dropped the whole box on my feet, but I caught myself.

[102] And I was hurting so bad, I was having muscle spasms, like a seizure in my body.

[103] I was taken to the emergency room.

[104] They gave me medication.

[105] They told me I needed to sit home for a while.

[106] They checked the baby.

[107] the doctor was like you shouldn't be doing all this heavy lifting and you know that from the first visit But Otisha kept showing up for work and she's getting bigger and bigger and closer and closer to her due date and she's starting to wonder what she's going to do when this baby is born so she goes to her manager I said do you know any information far as you know leave of absence She gave me a number to call, and I applied.

[108] And when I got back to work the next day, they called me to the office.

[109] And they was like, well, I wanted to bring to your attention that we did receive your request.

[110] And they told me that I was a temporary associate in Walmart no longer need my, no longer need my services.

[111] They basically let you go.

[112] Yep.

[113] I was so devastated.

[114] I was just like thinking, what am I going to do?

[115] Because I was, you know, a single parent.

[116] I had three kids.

[117] I had this baby on the way.

[118] Why nobody going to hire a seven -month pregnant woman?

[119] Who was going to do that?

[120] I did everything that they ever asked me to do.

[121] And when they let me go, I was so sad and I was so, I was so hurt.

[122] I couldn't even talk when they told me that they never longer need my services.

[123] I was at that point thinking, what is the point of me being here?

[124] We'll be right back.

[125] Anyone hearing Otisha's story would be sympathetic.

[126] She struggled hard to get a job at Walmart.

[127] It represented a big leap in her career.

[128] But I imagine that there are some people who will hear her story and view it from Walmart's perspective, which is, here's a person hired to do a job who can no longer do that job.

[129] And so why should this company continue to employ her?

[130] The question of what companies have to do with pregnant workers is for sure an intense debate and one that dates back.

[131] to the 70s.

[132] 43 women, including seven from this General Electric plant in Salem, Virginia, had filed the suit.

[133] In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled that General Electric was not discriminating when it didn't offer pregnant women paid leave when they took time off to have children, despite offering paid leave to other workers who took time off for other reasons.

[134] The Supreme Court ruled an employer does not have to give sick pay to women employees who are out from work having babies.

[135] Because it said many women aren't pregnant.

[136] So how can a policy be discriminatory towards women when many of them are not pregnant?

[137] In Philadelphia, representatives of women's groups met today to plan legislation to counteract the Supreme Court ruling last week.

[138] There was a big public outcry.

[139] And basically, people were saying, wait a minute, this is insane.

[140] A policy says pregnant women don't get the same accommodations as disabled people.

[141] is discriminating against women.

[142] And so Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978.

[143] The legislation which we are introducing does not force employers to provide this kind of insurance.

[144] That act said employers, if they are accommodating people who are similarly situated to pregnant people, they have to accommodate pregnant people.

[145] And that women who happen to become pregnant should not be separated out and treated differently from their male counterparts.

[146] So after the Supreme Court ruled that companies don't have to accommodate pregnant people the way that they do disabled people, Congress then passes a law saying that they do.

[147] That's right.

[148] And it seemed like a win for pregnant women.

[149] But it didn't settle everything.

[150] Employers in court said that pregnant women were more like people who got injured off the job.

[151] Employers hadn't injured anybody off the job, and they hadn't made anyone get pregnant either.

[152] So why should they have to accommodate people like that?

[153] And so when women took their companies to court, the companies won.

[154] But then along comes Peggy Young.

[155] I actually drove a minivan and carried my packages, small letters, in the seat next to me in my van.

[156] Peggy Young is an early morning, driver for UPS, she gets pregnant, and she gets a note from her doctor that says, My doctor recommended me not lift anything over 20 pounds.

[157] She probably shouldn't lift really heavy boxes, and she takes that note to UPS.

[158] UPS

[159].S.