Important Labor Updates from AICC Partner FiveL

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

This new law took effect June 27th. It requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee or applicant with known limitations due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. This may include an individual who is pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or was recently pregnant. No disability is required. The EEOC published their updated labor poster on the same date. The EEOC has already announced that it is accepting charges of discrimination under this new statute. Avoid the $659 fine for failing to post the current poster; please replace your existing poster with the current poster. If you have an Employee Handbook, I recommend you consider adding a related policy to it. See below re: SCOTUS’ decision on religious accommodation for a policy recommendation. Click here for more information including the EEOC’s infographic for employers, a Q & A, and more. TIP: The EEOC’s infographic for employers reads, “Train managers about the PWFA so they are ready when they get requests for reasonable accommodation.”

SCOTUS’ Decision: Religious Accommodation

On June 29th, the U.S. Supreme Court modified the standard for providing reasonable accommodation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for an individual’s sincerely held religious belief. This covers employers with 15 or more employees. An accommodation is reasonable where it does not pose an “undue hardship.” The Court held that an undue hardship must be more than “de minimis,” which has been the interpretation in the past. Moving forward, “undue hardship is shown when a burden is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” An undue hardship is not one that “is imposed by temporary costs, voluntary shift swapping, occasional shift swapping, or administrative costs.” If you already have a reasonable accommodation policy in your Employee Handbook covering pregnancy and religion, consider updating them. If you do not have one, I recommend creating one policy that covers reasonable accommodation for disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (also covering employers with 15 or more employees), pregnancy, and religious observance. That enables to you cover all these bases in one policy, rather than three.