The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday issued a proposed rule to implement the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship.
The PWFA was signed into law in December and became effective June 27. The EEOC enforces the act and began accepting charges on the day the law became effective. The PWFA requires the commission to issue regulations to implement the law by Dec. 29.
The act builds on existing protections against pregnancy discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The new law could apply to an estimated 2.8 million workers annually, NBC News previously reported.
“This important new civil rights law promotes the economic security and health of pregnant and postpartum workers by providing them with access to support on the job to keep working, which helps employers retain critical talent,” EEOC Chair Charlotte A. Burrows said Monday in a statement.
The proposed rule was approved Aug. 1 by majority vote of the EEOC and is meant to clarify how the EEOC proposes to interpret the PWFA as well as certain terms in the statute, such as “temporary,” “essential functions” and “communicated to the employer.”
The rule also provides several examples of possible reasonable accommodations and seeks input on whether it should provide additional examples and, if so, for what additional situations.
The proposed rule is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Friday but is available as a PDF now. The commission will accept comments at regulations.gov for 60 days after publication.
Read more business articles here.
