Women are the primary, sole, or co-breadwinners in nearly 64 percent of families, earning at least half of their total household income. As of 2021, over 66 percent of women in the United States who gave birth in the prior year were in the labor force, up from about 57 percent in 2006. Moreover, an increasing number of pregnant workers are working later into their pregnancies—over 80 percent of first-time mothers who worked during their pregnancy worked into the last three months before their child’s birth. The lack of accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions means that pregnant workers can be faced with an impossible choice between their job and a necessary paycheck or their health or the health of their pregnancy. Without accommodations, pregnant workers too often may find that they must quit their jobs or face being fired, which can also mean that workers lose their employer-sponsored health insurance at a time when they especially need it. Others are forced to take leave, which can mean that the worker does not have leave to recover from childbirth later.
To that end, the United States Equal employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently issued a final rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which PWFA functions as an expansion to fill in gaps in coverage under Title VII, the ADA, and the FMLA for workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
The PWFA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions so they can remain healthy and in their jobs.
Prior to the PWFA, some pregnant workers have not received simple, common-sense accommodations, such as a stool for a cashier or bathroom breaks for a preschool teacher due to gaps in Title VII.
Under the ADA, a pregnancy may not qualify as a disability, and protections may be limited to only those capable of showing a pregnancy-related disability.
Similarly, under the FMLA, an employee must work for an employer with 50 or more employees within 75 miles of their worksite and meet certain tenure requirements in order to be entitled to FMLA leave, and the FMLA only provides unpaid leave—it does not require reasonable accommodations that would allow workers to stay on the job and continue to be paid.
The PWFA responds to these and other limitations and fills the gaps in current Federal legal protections.
Some of the reasonable accommodations a worker may week under the PWFA include, but are not limited to:
- job restructuring;
- part-time or modified work schedules;
- more frequent breaks;
- acquisition or modification of equipment, uniforms, or devices;
- allowing seating for jobs that require standing or standing in jobs that require sitting;
- appropriate adjustment or modification of examinations or policies;
- permitting the use of paid leave (whether accrued, short-term disability, or another type of employer benefit) or providing unpaid leave, including to attend health care-related appointments and to recover from childbirth;
- assignment to light duty;
- telework;
- and, accommodating a worker’s inability to perform one or more essential functions of a job by temporarily suspending the requirement that the employee perform that function, if the inability to perform the essential function is temporary and the worker could perform the essential function in the near future.
Cite: 29 CFR Part 1636, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/11/2023-17041/regulations-to-implement-the-pregnant-workers-fairness-act.
If you have questions or would like to discuss a situation, reach out to a Pregnancy Discrimination Lawyer in Columbus, Ohio today.
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