The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1979 (PDA) protects women from discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Pregnant women who can work must be permitted to work on the same conditions as other employees. When they are not able to work for medical reasons, they must be afforded the same rights, leave privileges and other benefits as other workers who are disabled from working.
What are Some Reasonable Accommodations for Pregnant Employees?
- Redistributing marginal or nonessential functions (such as lifting) that a pregnant worker cannot perform, or altering how an essential or marginal function is performed.
- Modifying workplace policies, such as allowing a pregnant worker more frequent breaks or allowing her to keep a water bottle at a workstation even though keeping drinks at workstations is prohibited.
- Modifying a work schedule so that someone who experiences severe morning sickness can arrive later than her usual start time and leave later to make up the time.
- Allowing a pregnant worker placed on bed rest to telework where feasible.
- Granting leave in addition to what an employer would normally provide under a sick leave policy.
- Purchasing or modifying equipment, such as a stool for a pregnant employee who needs to sit while performing job tasks typically performed while standing.
- Temporarily reassigning an employee to a light-duty position.
- Allow flexible schedules, reduced work schedules or flexible use of leave time.
- Provide a day shift, provide a straight shift instead of rotating shifts.
- Allow reasonable break time for an employee to express break milk each time the employee has a need to do so.
- Provide a private place, other than a restroom, to express break milk.
- Provide access to a refrigerator and a secure place to store expressed milk.
- Allow to travel with a cooler.
Best Practices
- Have a process in place for expeditiously considering reasonable accommodation requests made by employees with pregnancy-related disabilities, and for granting accommodations where appropriate.
- State explicitly in any written reasonable accommodation policy that reasonable accommodations may be available to individuals with temporary impairments, including impairments related to pregnancy.
- Make any written reasonable accommodation procedures an employer may have widely available to all employees, and periodically remind them that the employer will reasonably accommodate employees with disabilities who need them, absent undue hardship.
- Train managers to recognize requests for reasonable accommodations, to respond promptly to all requests, and to avoid assuming that pregnancy-related impairments are not disabilities.
- Make sure that anyone designated to handle requests for reasonable accommodations knows that the definition of the term “disability” is broad and that employees requesting accommodations, including employees with pregnancy-related impairments, should not be required to submit more than reasonable documentation to establish that they have covered disabilities.
- If a particular accommodation requested by an employee cannot be provided, explain why and offer to discuss the possibility of providing an alternative accommodation.
References:
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Smith, A. (7/14/2014) EEOC Guidance: PDA and ADA Require Accommodations. Shrm.org
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EEOC.gov
