Late last week, Congress passed two bills – the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP Act) – to provide additional workplace protections for pregnant and post-partum employees. The bills were passed as amendments to the omnibus spending bill, which President Biden signed on December 29, 2022.
But how do the PWFA and the PUMP Act differ from preexisting federal laws addressing pregnancy discrimination and employer requirements related to nursing employees? Both are briefly summarized below, followed by key takeaways for employers evaluating whether their current policies and practices align with the new federal laws.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, prohibits sex discrimination, including pregnancy discrimination, but does not require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees. Relatedly, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against applicants and employees based on a disability, including a pregnancy-related disability, and imposes requirements for providing reasonable accommodations. However, pregnancy itself is not a disability under the ADA. The PWFA, modeled after the ADA, fills what many have viewed as a long-standing gap between these preexisting federal laws by requiring covered employers to make reasonable accommodations to the known limitations...
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