what accommodations need to be made for pregnant workers

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Entrepreneurs whose businesses entail manual labor or fifty-fifty just stamina would be wise to pay attention to the U.Due south. Supreme Court'south March 25 decision in Young v. United Bundle Service, Inc. regarding piece of work-related accommodations for pregnant employees.

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Related: How much maternity leave am I required to give my employees?

Title Vii of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended past the Pregnancy Bigotry Act of 1978, has long clarified that unlawful sex activity bigotry covers pregnancy. Information technology was the latter law under which Patricia Young, a role-time driver, sued UPS.

At the time, UPS drivers like Young were required to lift parcels weighing upward to 70 pounds. Afterward Young became pregnant she was placed on a twenty-pound lifting restriction. Like many companies, still, UPS had a low-cal duty program, merely only for employees in three categories: 1) those with limitations resulting from work-related injuries; 2) those covered nether the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and three) those who had lost their Department of Transportation certification.

Young did non fit into any of these categories. She applied for light duty anyway and was rejected, then told she could not return to work until after her pregnancy.

With government support Immature sued, arguing pregnancy discrimination. UPS argued dorsum that its policy lawfully made distinctions based on workers' compensation status.

The Court took a third position. Information technology rejected the government'southward argument that light duty jobs, if offered, must be offered to meaning employees with similar limitations. Information technology also rejected the UPS defense that, because its stardom was based solely on workers' compensation condition, pregnancy discrimination had not occurred.

Instead, the Court adopted a three-stride approach:

1.  An employee generally tin challenge a lite duty programme that excludes significant employees.
2. The employer may seek to justify its exclusion based on a "legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason."
3. The employee tin challenge the employer'due south reason and reach a juryto consider her claim if she provides sufficient prove that the visitor's policy imposes a significant impact on pregnant workers and its reasons are not sufficiently strong to justify the burden.

In outcome the Court established a balancing exam, though it offered no hints as to what a "legitimate employer involvement" might be. It did say that any employer's merits that adding significant workers is less convenient or more expensive would not concur.

So, what does this all mean for entrepreneurs?

1. If you lot accept a light duty program that excludes pregnant employees, assume information technology may be challenged, and if then, that the case likely will stop up before a jury. The odds of winning are not adept.
2. If you don't have a light duty program, y'all don't have to create one. That is, you practise not accept to give pregnancy a preference. Indeed, an employer that has a lite duty program could conclude that, based on the Court's determination, the programme may not serve its intended purpose, and constrict or cancel it.
3. Even if an employer does not offer lite duty, the visitor cannot treat employees with disabilities associated with pregnancy or childbirth less favorably than those with other disabilities that similarly hinder the ability to work. Entrepreneurs should also notation that the definition of disability was expanded significantly nether the amended ADA so that even temporary conditions may plant a disability if they severely touch on a major life activity. Therefore, near medical limitations associated with pregnancy or childbirth likely will be disabilities that must be accommodated. This does not necessarily hateful light duty. An employer generally does not take to eliminate essential functions, only accommodate to a reasonable extent how they are achieved.
4. Employers should have a reasonable accommodation policy that makes clear their coverage of physical and mental atmospheric condition includes those associated with pregnancy or childbirth. In some states and local jurisdictions, such as New Jersey and New York City, employers may have to accommodate pregnant employees even if they are not disabled. Employers in those jurisdictions will need to make that accommodation clear likewise.

Related: How to Handle Multiple Employees Having Babies All At One time

Finally, and peradventure most important, supervisors and those to a higher place them should receive training on pregnancy discrimination, covering such issues equally:

• No applicant or employee should ever be asked if she is pregnant or intends to get pregnant.
• Employers cannot consider pregnancy in decision making, including decisions based on stereotypic assumptions or paternalistic impulses.
• Employers cannot engage in or tolerate pregnancy-related harassment (belly rubbing, "jokes" about conception, etc.).
• Employers must ensure that pregnant employees with medical limitations are accommodated to the same extent as nonpregnant employees with comparable medical limitations
• Supervisors should not determine what accommodation is or is non appropriate. Rather, they should written report to HR whatsoever time a pregnant employee requests an accommodation, even if she does not use the legal "fizz words."

Training on these problems will do more than help go on an entrepreneur out of court; it will foster a civilization in which pregnant women know they are valued so that they tin can contribute their all-time to the organization's mission.

Related: Cutting the String: How I Woman Tried to Hibernate Her Pregnancy From the Internet

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Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244475

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