As the employment law updates roll in, here are two you don’t want to miss: the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act).
Just days before the new year, President Biden signed both into law as part of the omnibus spending bill. Here’s what you need to know:
The PWFA “closes a loophole” in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), Sen. Bob Casey said in a recent debate.
What’s different? The PDA prohibits pregnancy-related bias in the workplace – but it does not specifically guarantee pregnant workers the right to accommodations.
The PWFA fills that gap.
Using language found in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the PWFA requires companies with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” to workers for pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions – unless those accommodations would cause an “undue hardship.”
Moreover, the law requires companies to engage in the “interactive process” to work together with employees to determine whether a reasonable accommodation would allow the person to do the job.
Examples of reasonable accommodations might include light duty, flexible scheduling and temporary transfers.
In addition, the PWFA prohibits employers from requiring workers “to take paid or unpaid leave if another reasonable accommodation can be provided.” It also expressly prohibits retaliation based on pregnancy-related accommodations...
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