On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law an omnibus appropriations bill which includes expanded protections for pregnant and nursing employees through two new acts: The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (PUMP) Act.

New Reasonable Accommodations Requirements

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant employees and prohibits employment practices that discriminate against qualified employees affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. A qualified employee is an employee or applicant who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the position.

Specifically, the Act makes it is an unlawful employment practice to take any of the following adverse actions with respect to a qualified employee’s pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition:

• refuse reasonable accommodations, unless such refusal would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business;
• require the employee to accept an accommodation other than any reasonable accommodation arrived at through an interactive process with the employer;
• deny employment opportunities to the employee if such denial is based on the need to make reasonable accommodations;
• require the employee to take leave, whether paid or unpaid, if another reasonable accommodation can be provided that would enable the...

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