Pregnant Employees Now Guaranteed Reasonable Accommodations

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act became effective this summer, ushering in added protections for pregnant employees. While federal laws like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (Title VII), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) already shielded pregnant employees from employment discrimination, the new law solidifies and extends these protections.

Title VII, for instance, prohibits employers from discriminating against employees or applicants based on current, past, or potential future pregnancies, lactation, birth control usage, decisions regarding abortions, or medical conditions linked to pregnancy. Moreover, if a pregnancy leads to a disability, such as gestational diabetes, the ADA mandates protections against discrimination and harassment and imposes affirmative obligations for reasonable accommodations. 

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act now applies the same ADA's reasonable accommodation requirement to all pregnant workers who need it, even if they are not technically “disabled” under the ADA. Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to employees with known limitations due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless the employer can demonstrate that such accommodations would result in an undue hardship.

Reasonable accommodation requests are often challenging to navigate. Undue hardship is hard to prove, and employers should seek legal advice when faced with problematic accommodation requests.