With the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) now in effect, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to establish regulations for the law.

The PWFA—which took effect on June 27—requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees for a known limitation related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation would cause the employer an undue hardship.

Tasked with providing regulations, the EEOC’s NPRM provides definitions of relevant terms, including “temporary,” “essential functions,” and a broad definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions” that includes current, past and potential pregnancy; the use of birth control; lactation; menstruation; and the termination of pregnancy, including miscarriage and abortion.

To request an accommodation, an employee must identify the limitation and communicate that she needs an adjustment or change at work. The regulations do not require that the employee mention the PWFA by name or use specific language (such as “reasonable accommodation”).

An employer may request supporting documentation only if the act of requiring it and the documentation itself are reasonable, the EEOC said.

Employers must conduct an individualized assessment to determine whether a modification is a reasonable accommodation, the agency explained, but examples of modifications and reasonable...

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