The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) takes effect on June 27, 2023, and requires private employers with at least 15 employees to provide reasonable accommodations to their employees for pregnancy, childbirth, recovery, and related medical conditions, including lactation. Such reasonable accommodations may include flexible hours, additional break time, and/or light work activity and must be determined via a good faith discussion between the employer and the employee to determine what accommodations are appropriate. Covered employers are required to provide these accommodations unless they would cause an undue hardship, or significant difficulty or expense, for the employers.
The PWFA applies only to accommodations. The PWFA does not replace federal, state, or local laws that are more protective of workers affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. More than 30 states and cities – including Washington – have laws that provide accommodations for pregnant workers.
The Providing Urgent Material Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”), which in part took effect on December 29, 2022, expands employer obligations under the Fair Labor Standars Act (FLSA) to provide reasonable break time – and a clean, private space that is not a bathroom – for an employee to express breast milk for their nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time the employee has need to express the milk.
The PUMP Act almost entirely closes the coverage gap...
federal government to resolve False Claims Act claims with a price tag of $1. 5 billion, part of a settlement it said "provides the only viable pathway" to resolution and moving forward with a reor...