EEOC’s Rule on Implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA)

On Friday, April 19, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published its final rule and related interpretive guidance to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), which President Biden signed into law on December 29, 2022.  The PWFA amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and it builds upon existing protections in Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) by requiring covered employers to provide “reasonable accommodations to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of a qualified employee, unless such covered entity can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of such covered entity.” The law also prohibits covered employers from requiring “a qualified employee affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions to accept an accommodation other than any reasonable accommodation arrived at through the interactive process” employers must undertake with the affected worker. Covered employers may not “deny employment opportunities to a qualified employee if such denial is based on the need of the covered entity to make reasonable accommodations to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of the qualified employee.” Nor may a covered employer “require a qualified employee to take leave, whether paid or unpaid, if another reasonable accommodation can be provided to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of the qualified employee.” It is also unlawful under the PWFA for a covered employer to “take adverse action in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment against a qualified employee on account of the employee requesting or using a reasonable accommodation to the known limitations related to the pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions of the employee.”