On June 27, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) went into effect obligating employers with 15 or more employees to provide accommodations to their pregnant employees. Here’s what the PWFA provides, and similar obligations California law imposes on employers with five or more employees.

PWFA

The PWFA added a new right to Title VII, the federal workplace discrimination law. Federal law already prohibited employment discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. (For simplicity, I refer to these collectively as pregnancy.) The new law:

(1) Requires covered employers to make reasonable accommodations for the “known limitations” of an employee’s pregnancy unless the employer “can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship” on the employer’s business;

(2) Prohibits an employer from requiring an employee to accept an accommodation other than one resulting from an interactive process with the employee;

(3) Prohibits an employer from denying a qualified employee employment opportunities based on the employee’s need for a pregnancy-related accommodation;

(4) Prohibits an employer from requiring a pregnant employee to take paid or unpaid leave if another reasonable accommodation is available for her known pregnancy-related limitations; and

(5) Prohibits an employer from taking any adverse action against an employee for “requesting or using” a pregnancy-related reasonable accommodation.

The PWFA further prohibits an employer...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNhbmRpZWdvdW5pb250...