The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released an updated version of the “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster to account for upcoming changes to workplace anti-discrimination laws.
The Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act, signed into law last year, comes into effect on June 27, 2023, at which time employers will need to swap out their current posters with new versions that include the new protected class.
The Act requires “covered employers” 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 law only covers accommodations, while existing laws make it illegal to fire or otherwise discriminate against workers on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.
Covered employers include private and public sector employers with at least 15 employees.
The poster
It’s important that you take action immediately to update your labor law poster by June 27.
In order to stay in compliance, you’ll need to download, print and then post the new posters alongside your current poster, which should be located in a conspicuous area that your employees will see.
The English-language version of new poster can be downloaded here. The Spanish-language version can be downloaded here.
For additional information about this EEOC update, visit the agency’s website.
Internal steps
The new law requires that leave be considered as a reasonable accommodation. However, if you have in place an existing pregnancy/maternity leave policy that applies to all workers, the policy may violate this law if that is all you are offering pregnant employees per your handbook, according to an analysis of the law by <i>JDSupra.com</i>, a legal website.
Additionally, <i>JDSupra.com</i> recommends that you train supervisors and managers on the new law and that they will need to offer accommodations to pregnant employees, such as light duty, which previously may have only been offered to those injured on the job and/or who had serious, long-term medical conditions such as cancer, PTSD or diabetes.
It also recommends updating your employee handbook to list “pregnancy” as its own protected class in both your “Equal Employment Opportunity” and “Accommodation Request” sections.
Finally, the website warns: “In both your policies and in practice, putting a pregnant employee ‘out on leave’ should not be your initial, only, or otherwise ‘go to’ move when it comes to ‘accommodation.’”
If you have questions, feel free to contact us.