(The following story by Stacie Hamel appeared on the Omaha World-Herald website on January 21.)
OMAHA, Neb. — A second class-action lawsuit has been filed against Union Pacific Railroad seeking to require the Omaha-based company to provide prescription drug coverage for contraceptives.
Samantha Brand, a U.P. employee who lives near Vancouver, Wash., filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
U.P. spokesman John Bromley said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit but that it appeared to be identical to other lawsuits involving Planned Parenthood and filed against companies around the country.
Brand is a union member, Bromley said, and medical coverage is a matter for negotiation. Nonunion U.P. employees have had prescription contraceptive coverage “for some time,” he said.
“In theory, if the union wants to (add the coverage), then we’ll do it. It’s part of their health package negotiation,” Bromley said. “It’s something we would mutually agree on.”
Brand claims that Union Pacific’s failure to include the coverage violates the portion of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits employers with 15 or more workers from making decisions on the basis of gender.
The lawsuit calls for Union Pacific to provide coverage for contraceptives approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and to reimburse employees who have paid for contraceptives themselves.
The company disagrees that it has violated any of the statutes regarding discrimination, Bromley said.
The earlier lawsuit, filed in March 2003 in Portland, Ore., is pending in district court in Omaha after the company requested that it be transferred.
Beverly Todd Nolte, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs, said the case is interesting for Nebraska because U.P. is one of its largest employers and the state is not among the 21 that have passed contraceptive-equity legislation.
“Contraception really is basic health care because 85 percent of women will use contraception at some point, and if insurance doesn’t cover it, they’re paying out of their pocket,” Nolte said.
Several large employers, such as Albertsons, American Mobile Healthcare and Manpower, have added the coverage in the wake of a ruling in a lawsuit against Bartell Drug Co. in Seattle that the company had violated Title VII by failing to cover prescription contraceptives.
“There’s growing legal precedent as well as growing movement by companies to accept contraceptive coverage,” Nolte said.