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Instructor
Greg Chartier
This webinar will discuss the Guidance provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that is designed to assist employers in complying with the Pregnant Worker Fairness Act (PWFA).
The PWFA requires a covered entity to make reasonable accommodations to a qualified employee's or applicant's known limitations related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, absent undue hardship on the operation of the business of the covered entity. The PWFA directs the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to promulgate regulations to implement the PWFA. As required by the PWFA, the final rule also provides examples of reasonable accommodations.
Pregnancy is a normal condition of employment; more than 80 percent of all working women will have at least one child during their lives. But existing legal protections have been glaringly insufficient for workers whose duties may conflict with pregnancy's physical realities such as cashiers (prolonged standing), nurses (repetitive heavy lifting), custodians (exposure to chemicals), and firefighters (battling potentially lethal blazes).
Under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), enacted in 1978, pregnant workers have been entitled to temporary job modifications only if their employer provides them to others "similar in their ability or inability to work." That language long has been used to deny needed "accommodations" to pregnant workers, on the grounds that favored non-pregnant colleagues are insufficiently "similar."
Nearly 85 percent of women will become mothers during their working lives. And yet discrimination against pregnant workers is incredibly common, showing up in both well-paid law-firm and Wall Street jobs and service-sector work like fast food and retail. Pregnant workers, particularly those in low-wage industries, often need some sort of modification to their jobs so they can keep working while protecting their health and the health of their pregnancies; before the PWFA was passed, such requests were often denied. Many people were simply fired instead of given simple accommodations.
The PWFA ensures that an employer almost always will have to grant some straightforward modifications, such as the ability to sit or stand while at work, carry a water bottle, and take more restroom breaks. Workers can also request things like better-fitting uniforms and light duty assignments. But it also has other requirements that are more far-reaching. In a country in which only 27 percent of Americans get paid family leave, the PWFA opens up a brand-new avenue for workers to secure time off for pregnancy related needs both before giving birth and afterward without risking their jobs.
The PWFA also interacts and actually conflicts with other federal civil rights legislation. This webinar will review the details of the PWFA and help employers to determine how to comply with the law and how to connect it to other pieces of legislation that they are obligated to enforce.