Question

Gracie was surprised and pleased to find she was pregnant. She worked as a waitress at Good Food and was aware that Groucho, her employer, had allowed employees who were ill for reasons that were not work related to take paid time off. For example, her friend Craig was off with pay for two months after suffering a mild heart attack, and her friend Bonnie was off of work for three months when she ran her personal watercraft into a dock and broke her leg. Gracie told her employer Groucho about her pregnancy. He very angrily told her that pregnancy was completely voluntary, that he was not paying her a dime when she was off work, and that she would be lucky if he even allowed her to continue working at all because she would not be as cute when she gained weight. He also said that he serves families, and he does not want the kids to ask embarrassing questions of their parents regarding Gracie's condition. Gracie was very angry and threatened to sue. Groucho told her, however, that he had business law back in 1980 and that discrimination based on pregnancy is not even covered by Title VII. The employee handbook did not address the issue.
What will be the likely result if Groucho defends on the basis that customers will object to Gracie's condition?

a. Groucho will only prevail on a defense of bona fide occupational qualification if he can establish that Gracie was attempting to voluntarily get pregnant.
b. Groucho will only prevail on a defense of bona fide occupational qualification if he can prove that he has an established history of barring pregnant servers and that he did not single out Gracie.
c.Groucho will not prevail on a defense of bona fide occupational qualification because it is available in cases involving religion and national origin only.
d. If he can prove that is true, then Groucho will prevail on the defense of bona fide occupational qualification.
e. Groucho will lose on a defense of bona fide occupational qualification because he will not be able to establish that only non-pregnant employees can perform as servers.

Answer 1

Answer: e. Groucho will lose on a defense of bona fide occupational qualification because he will not be able to establish that only non-pregnant employees can perform as servers.

Explanation:

Groucho would be unable to prove that a pregnant person will be unable to fulfil their occupational obligations because it is not uncommon to see pregnant women working. He will not be able to prove that that only non-pregnant workers can serve because his main reason of children asking embarrassing questions will not stand as children in this day and age are already knowledgeable of what it means to be pregnant and if they don't it will be an excellent opportunity to introduce them.

Customers will probably not object to pregnant women serving them as this is a natural phenomenon. The Federal Government also recognizes that Pregnant women can still work and for this reason amended Title VII accordingly.