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Business Law Paper

Employment Law
University of Phoenix

Employment law is a focus on areas of the employer/employee relationship. Employment law is a mixture of contract law, agency law, and government regulation. Some laws were created for protection of the worker. Other laws were created for public insurance. While I have not had personal employment conflicts I will focus on pregnancy discrimination. My employer has sales offices and warehouses. Women may not be discriminated against in any of these buildings due to pregnancy.
The Pregnancy Discrimination act is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964/ it states “Discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions constitutes unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII. Women affected by pregnancy or related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations.” (U.S. EEOC, 2004) This law requires that employers offer the employee a reasonable amount of time off for maternity leave; although no set time period is established; the time is usually around six to 10 weeks. Upon the employees return they are entitled to the job they had before or one that is similar to it. In addition to this, they are entitled to maintain any benefits that they had prior to leave such as insurance. Pregnancy related benefits cannot be limited to married employees. In an all-female workforce or job classification, benefits must be provided for pregnancy related conditions if benefits are provided for other medical conditions. If an employer provides any benefits to workers on leave, the employer must provide the same benefits for those on leave for pregnancy related conditions. Employees with pregnancy related disabilities must be treated the same as other temporarily disabled employees for accrual and crediting of seniority, vacation calculation, pay increases and temporary...