Sunday, February 12, 2012

Really? No Really!

Federal Judge Lynn N. Hughes in the Southern District of Texas has granted summary judgement against the EEOC in a case where the Commission claimed an employee was fired because she wanted to pump breast milk for her new born at work. Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. In EEOC v. Houston Funding II, Ltd, Judge Hughes joins several other district courts in finding "[f]iring someone because of lactation or breast pumping is not sex discrimination . . . the law does not punish lactation discrimination." One can understand the logic that lactation discrimination is not pregnancy or child birth discrimination, but isn't a a medical condition related thereto?