Pregnancy accommodations: When do employees qualify?

Q          Do employees have to be employed for 12 months or work 1,250 hours to qualify for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), or do they qualify as soon as they begin employment?

The PWFA applies to employees as soon as they begin employment, and it also applies to applicants. Under the federal PWFA, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations for both current and potential employees who have a known limitation stemming from a condition related to pregnancy, unless doing so would pose an undue hardship to the business.

A “condition related to pregnancy” can be during or after pregnancy and may include, but is not limited to, in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, morning sickness, lactation, and the need to express breast milk. It’s sufficient for employees to notify their employer that they have a pregnancy-related limitation and need an accommodation by saying, for example, “I am having trouble getting to work for my scheduled start time because of my morning sickness.”

After being notified of an employee’s limitation, employers must engage in a prompt, good-faith, interactive process with the employee to determine an effective reasonable accommodation. Thirty states and Washington, D.C., have passed pregnancy accommodation laws similar to the federal PWFA, and Massachusetts is one of those states.