United Parcel Service - Employment Actions

Employment Actions

In recent years, UPS had some employment actions brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In EEOC v. United Parcel Service, Inc. a former UPS employee took a 12-month leave of absence after she began having symptoms that were later diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. UPS had a policy allowing employees to take up to 12 months off for medical leave. When the employee exhausted this medical leave, the EEOC alleges the employee requested an additional two weeks of leave and that she could have returned to her job after those additional two weeks. Instead of allowing the alleged request for an additional two weeks of leave, UPS terminated her employment. In Jackson v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 548 F.3d 1137 (8th Cir. 2008), UPS allegedly demoted a black, female employee after she caused an accident on her first day on the job. The court ruled that the employee failed to make out Title VII race and gender discrimination claims because UPS promptly reinstated her to her former position and paid her full back pay. The court held that “a demotion or denial of a promotion, even when accompanied by a loss in pay, is not an adverse employment action when it is corrected in a timely manner.” In EEOC v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111464 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 28, 2011), the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois scrutinized agency-initiated suits that do not lay out certain basic legal elements based on the Supreme Court decisions.

In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that UPS violated federal employment law when it allowed supervisors and coworkers to discriminate against and harass an employee for being Arab and Muslim.