News You Can Use: SCOTUS rules against crediting maternity leave in pension calculations

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that women who took maternity leave before the enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 don’t have a legal claim in requiring employers to apply that leave on pension accruals.

In AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen, the Supreme Court had to decide whether the telecommunication giant was correct in refusing to calculate pregnancy leave incurred prior to 1979 in determining pension benefits.

In 1968, Hulteen took pregnancy disability leave for eight months. However, when she retired in 1994, she realized her pension checks were reduced because the eight months were not calculated as service time toward her pension benefits.

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court overturned a lower-court decision stating that AT&T had violated the PDA by treating pregnancy-related disability leave differently from other disability leaves.

Although PDA requires employers to accord women who take pregnancy leave the same benefit as employees who take other types of temporary disability leave, AT&T argued, in part, that the court could no longer rely on previous case laws on retroactive principles because of a recent Supreme Court decision that limits applying federal statutes retroactively.

The majority of justices agreed. “Congress provided for the PDA to take effect on the date of enactment, except in its application to certain benefit programs, as to which effectiveness was held back 180 days,” Justice David Souter wrote.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer dissented: “Congress did not provide a remedy for pregnancy-based discrimination already experienced before PDA became effective,” Ginsburg wrote. “I am persuaded by the Act’s text and legislative history, however, that Congress intended no continuing reduction of women’s compensation, pension benefits included, attributable to their placement on pregnancy leave.”

Related EBN/BenefitNews.com coverage:
AT&T ordered to credit pregnancy leave in calculating pensions
HR policy high on Washington agenda

News You Can Use: Supremes to hear case on crediting pregnacy leave for calculating pension

Today the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in AT&T v. Hulteen, a case that will address how employers should factor maternity leave into calculating years of service for pension benefits.

The women bringing the suit are retired AT&T employees who took pregnancy-related leave prior to the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1979. Before the law became effective, AT&T limited the amount of pregnancy leave that could be credited as years of service, but did not limit other types of disability leave. As a result, the women received smaller pensions than if they'd been given full credit for pregnancy leave.

The case will address whether the benefits limit is a violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

News You Can Use: Pregnancy discrimination persists

It's difficult enough being pregnant. Employers absolutely must stop making matters worse by discriminating against moms-to-be.

Thirty years after the enactment of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which outlaws employment bias due to pregnancy and/or childbirth, a study from the National Partnership for Women and Families finds that, according to EEOC data, pregnancy discrimination charges increased 65% from 1992 to 2007. Among minorities, such charges rose 76% in the same period.

Even worse, “The increase in complaints about pregnancy discrimination far outpaced the increase in women in the workforce during this time period,” said National Partnership General Counsel Jocelyn Frye, who authored the report. “Because many women who face pregnancy discrimination are reluctant to file charges with the EEOC, the problem may be even more widespread than these figures suggest.”