What MFMs Need to Know: The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
By: Sarah Brafman, National Policy Director, A Better Balance
As physicians caring for individuals experiencing high-risk pregnancies, you are often called upon to serve as advocates for your patients, including when they might need accommodations in the workplace due to their pregnancy or following childbirth. For some pregnant and postpartum patients, routine work responsibilities, such as lifting heavy boxes, standing for long periods of time, or working with chemicals, may exacerbate the likelihood of pregnancy complications. Unfortunately, for many patients, obtaining reasonable workplace accommodations has been difficult or impossible, and requests have often led to job loss.
Maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists and their patients now have a powerful new set of workplace protections made possible by the nationwide Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The law, which went into effect on June 27, guarantees pregnant, postpartum, and lactating people the right to reasonable accommodations in their workplaces so long as those accommodations don’t impose an undue hardship on employers. Importantly, workers need not have a disability related to their pregnancies in order to receive accommodations; rather those with medical needs related to their pregnancy or postpartum period that require accommodation in order to prevent complications from arising can also obtain accommodations under this new law. Examples of reasonable accommodations, can include, but aren’t limited to:
Additional, longer and more flexible breaks to drink water, eat, rest, or use the bathroom
Temporary transfer to a less physically demanding or safer position
Flexible scheduling (e.g. attend prenatal or postnatal appointments)
Leave or time off for complications, recovery from childbirth, recovery from miscarriage, perinatal or postpartum depression, mastitis, and other pregnancy-related health issues
Light duty, or help with manual labor or lifting
Options for remote work
Break time and space to pump breast milk
This law, which applies to workplaces with 15 or more employees, is a huge win for pregnant and postpartum people who often find themselves compelled to carry out work responsibilities that could put their health or pregnancy at risk. With the implementation of this law, these individuals can be assured they will not lose their job due to needing temporary work changes that are medically necessary during or after pregnancy. Thirty states also have similar state-level protections—some of which apply to smaller employers—and those protections also remain in place.
A Better Balance was proud to lead the ten-year advocacy campaign to enact the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and has since been closely monitoring its implementation. Our team has created a new resource to educate you and your patients about their rights as a pregnant, postpartum, or lactating person in the workforce. The resource also includes a template accommodation request note. We encourage you to visit our website and share it with your patients (available in both English and Spanish). A Better Balance also runs a free and confidential helpline to help patients who have questions about their rights under the law or whose request for a reasonable accommodation has been denied by their employer. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency that will be enforcing the law. Workers who believe their rights have been violated under the PWFA can file a charge with the EEOC.
We hope you will join us in spreading the word to your patients and networks to ensure that pregnant and postpartum people can get the support they need in the workplace to have healthy pregnancies and healthy families.
As National Policy Director at A Better Balance, Sarah Brafman (she/her) helps lead the organization’s federal and state policy agenda, including the development of anti-discrimination protections focused on pregnant, lactating, and caregiving people, fair and flexible scheduling, ending abusive attendance policies, paid family and medical leave, and paid sick time. You can learn more about A Better Balance at https://www.abetterbalance.org/.