Memphis warehouse sets new policy for pregnancy
Nearly 100 U.S. representatives have called for a congressional investigation into XPO Logistics, which distributes retail products for Verizon and Disney worldwide.
At the center of the controversy is a Memphis warehouse, where multiple workers have had miscarriages after they say their requests to transition from long shifts of lifting heavy boxes to lighter duties were ignored. In a New York Times investigation, workers also complained about conditions at the facility they describe as windowless, with temperatures that exceed 100 degrees in the summer. One woman died of cardiac arrest on the shop floor in 2017, the New York Times reported.
Amid mounting pressure, XPO Logistics announced Tuesday a new policy that promises to grant automatic accommodations to pregnant workers, allowing for more frequent breaks, help with heavy lifting, paid prenatal leave and the possibility of a complete change in duties while pregnant.
“I feel overwhelmed knowing that another lady wouldn’t have to lose her baby in that building,” Tasha Murrell
told The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday. A former XPO worker, Murrell had a miscarriage in April 2014 after she says her request to end her shift early, because lifting on the job was causing her pain, was denied.
“That’s a good thing that they’re changing policy, but I feel like they wouldn’t have done that unless we spoke out about it,” she said.
Less than two months after an XPO Logistics spokeswoman initially told the New York Times that Murrell’s and other workers’ allegations were “false and misleading,” the company announced its policy update.
The move came the same day that dozens of members of Congress — led by Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut — submitted a letter to the House Education and Workforce Committee.
The letter calls for a hearing on XPO Logistics, which is valued at between $9 billion and $12 billion, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, legislation that has been proposed in every session of Congress since 2012.
“Oversight of the company would shed light on the company’s practices and should, I hope, lead to nationally relevant reforms for American workers,” Cohen said in a statement.
According to American Community Survey statistics, more than 63 percent of the nearly 4 million women who gave birth in 2017 were in the workforce during their pregnancies. That’s 2.5 million women.
A federal anti-discrimination law has been on the books since 1978, but it hasn’t stemmed a slew of major civil suits and thousands of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints citing pregnancy discrimination from being filed.
As the law stands, employers are not required to fulfill requests from pregnant workers unless they are already doing so for other workers. In a workplace where no one is granted an extra break, a pregnant worker has no legal right to an extra break either. The discretion built into the law has meant female workers have had to take their claims of discrimination to court — after damages have already occurred.
Alternatively, under the proposed Pregnant Worker Fairness Act, denying a pregnant worker a reasonable accommodation would be illegal. And that clarity would mean that the type of protections recently promised by XPO would be the civil rights of female workers across the country — not a matter of individual company policy.
“It shouldn’t have taken months of advocacy and public pressure,” Dina Bakst, co-president of A Better Balance, said in a statement regarding the development from XPO.
A legal clinic and national advocacy organization focused on workplace policies that support families, A Better Balance has worked to help pass local versions of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in 23 states and five municipalities across the country.
“State-by-state and company-bycompany change are not enough,” Bakst said. The law is necessary, Murrell said. “It makes employers do better. It makes them enforce their policies,” she said.
Tennessee is not among jurisdictions with a local version of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act in place. But that could change with the next legislative session, when state Sen. Jeff Yarbro plans to reintroduce the bill.
“No woman should have to choose between her job and what’s best for her child,” Yarbro told The CA in a previous interview. “We can’t stand by in the face of these tragedies.”
At the federal level, Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia said he hopes the House Education and Workforce Committee, which was called upon to hold the hearing on XPO, becomes a venue for furthering legislation that would strengthen workers’ rights and hold employers accountable for violating them. Scott is the ranking member of the committee, whose chairwoman, Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, did not respond to a request for comment.
“I am eager to work with my colleagues,” Scott said. “Legislation such as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would help end this type of discrimination and promote the health and economic security of pregnant women and their families.”
Meanwhile, Murrell said she’ll continue to speak out — and she encourages other female workers to do the same.
“It’s hurtful, for me and the other women, to even speak out on losing our babies,” she said. “But I feel empowered. You never know who you might help by speaking out,” she said about the policy change that will benefit female workers at XPO as of Jan. 1.
“I’m very excited about that, but that’s just one down, one problem down,” Murrell added. “There’s so much going on in that building that’s horrible,” she said.
Reach Sarah Macaraeg at sarah. macaraeg@commercialappeal.com or 901-426-4357 and on Twitter @seramak.