***Corrections noted 3/18/24***
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed Public Law 117-328, which included both the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”), expanding protections for pregnant employees and nursing mothers in the workplace.
The PWFA requires employers with 15 or more employees to engage in an interactive process with employees to identify reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. In particular, the PWFA:
- Requires employers to provide employees with reasonable accommodations to the known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions;
- Prohibits employers from imposing accommodations that were not arrived at through an interactive process with the employee;
- Prohibits employers from denying employment opportunities on the basis of having to make reasonable accommodations;
- Prohibits employers from requiring an employee to take leave if another reasonable accommodation can be provided; and
- Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who request or use a reasonable accommodations.
The PWFA closely tracks with requirements in the Illinois Human Rights Act concerning pregnancy-related accommodations that have applied to Illinois employers since 2015.
Meanwhile, the PUMP Act expands on a 2010 law requiring employers to provide reasonable break time and a private space to nursing mothers in the workplace to allow them to express breast milk. The 2010 law applied only to non-exempt employees. The PUMP Act, however, applies to both non-exempt and exempt employees, such as teachers.
The PUMP Act requires employers to provide “(1) a reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for such employee’s nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk; and (2) a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.” Employers with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from the PUMP Acts requirement if they can demonstrate that compliance would impose an undue hardship. The PUMP Act’s requirements essentially align with rights already provided to Illinois workers under the state’s Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act.
If you have any questions concerning these new federal laws or accommodating employees in the workplace, please contact Ellen Rothenberg or Chris Hoffmann or any attorney in our Labor/Personnel Practice Group.
Source:
