Seyfarth Synopsis: As Californians prepare to set their clocks back an hour, California’s Civil Rights Council, within the state’s Civil Rights Department (CRD), is considering a reset of its own. In its October 16, 2026 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Council proposed significant substantive changes to California’s pregnancy leave and accommodation protections. Although Californians will soon gain an hour, employers may have less time to respond to certain accommodation requests, and less room to rely on familiar documentation and leave practices. Comments to the State of California are due December 8, 2026.
While our clocks will “fall back” in one week, California may soon “spring forward” workplace accommodation and leave protections for pregnant workers. On October 16, 2026, the Civil Rights Council, within the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, proposing several modifications to the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s (FEHA) pregnancy-related protections. According to the Council, FEHA’s rules “should be at least as protective as those implementing the PWFA”—the Federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which went into effect in June 2024. The proposed changes would more closely sync California law with the federal PWFA, and in some respects, move California’s protections further ahead. Don’t lose sleep over these developments—check out this webinar for a refresher on the PWFA framework, and continue reading for a...
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