DENVER (AP) – Charges by four female pilots that Frontier Airlines’ policies for pregnant women and new mothers are discriminatory could be seen as progress, an advocate says.
Decades ago, flight attendants were pushing just to keep their jobs after they became pregnant, said Phoebe Taubman, senior staff attorney with the advocacy group A Better Balance.
The discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this week on behalf of the pilots by the American Civil Liberties Union address leveling the playing field for women who are entering the workforce in increasing numbers and new positions, Taubman said.
“It’s a very different workplace,” said Taubman, who is not involved in the case.
The pilots, with help from the ACLU and the New York law firm of Holwell Shuster & Goldberg, are pushing the airline to change policies on maternity leaves and make it easier for new mothers to pump breast milk in private after returning to work.