Alleges Anti-Woman Bias
TWU Suing to Gain Birth-Control Benefit

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Transport Workers' Union Local 100 Recording Secretary Darlyne Lawson filed a sexual discrimination lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Manhattan Supreme Court July 18 over the agency's refusal to cover birth control pills in its company health plan.

DARLYNE LAWSON: A gender double-standard.

MTA health-care policies allow for coverage of prescription medications used by men - such as the impotency drug Viagra - but don't offer the same benefit for prescriptions used exclusively by women, like The Pill and other contraceptives.

An MTA spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit.

'Unconscionable Stance'

"It's a gender issue," said Ms. Lawson. "We have approximately 6,496 women among a population of 38,000 men, and I felt it was unconscionable that the MTA would help supply them with Viagra but not support women's need of contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancies."

Local 100 officials said that the MTA had agreed to provide contraception coverage during last December's negotiations, but that accord fell apart after transit workers in January rejected contract terms by seven votes. The contract is headed for binding arbitration.

Another important benefit held in limbo while the contract is settled, said Ms. Lawson, is maternity leave.

"Most people don't know that the MTA accommodates men [with Viagra] and affords them something that helps them impregnate women, but doesn't afford female workers any kind of maternity leave," she noted.

Under the stalled deal, she negotiated a stipend of $200 a week and four weeks' leave under the Family Medical Leave Act for new mothers. Additionally, she negotiated paternity leave for new fathers.

Must Use Sick Days

Currently, transit workers must use their sick days to cover any pregnancy-related absences. Ms. Lawson also won female workers the right to apply for temporary state disability pay if they had a difficult pregnancy and couldn't return to their job when their FMLA time expired.

It's unclear whether those benefits will be part of the contract that emerges from arbitration, a process that Local 100 and the MTA will begin Aug. 4.

Filed with EEOC

Before filing its sexual discrimination lawsuit against the MTA, Local 100 brought its complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC conducted an investigation and April 20 ruled that the MTA hadn't violated any civil-rights laws. But it authorized the union to go ahead with its lawsuit.

Ms. Lawson viewed the MTA's decision not to cover female contraception - which can cost anywhere from $15 to $35 a month - as part of an entrenched blindness stemming from the days when transit work was predominantly done by men.

Union statistics show that female workers of child-bearing age are entering transit ranks in larger numbers than any other demographic. But the MTA, said Ms. Lawson, hasn't updated policies accordingly.

"I knew a Bus Operator who had to work up to the day she gave birth," she said. "Many of our members have to go on welfare after giving birth because they only get a few days' paid sick time, and then they're on their own."

Taking time off penalizes women in other ways as well. The MTA's promotional policies for certain titles - notably Train Conductors - combine test results with attendance records, and rank candidates according to total score.

"Women who get pregnant are penalized for it. At least they should get contraception coverage," said Ms. Lawson. "They work alongside the men - why shouldn't they get the same treatment as men?"