Philadelphia Pregnancy Accommodation Law Notice to Employees Must be Posted
Effective April 20, 2014, all employers in the City of Philadelphia are required to provide written notice of the recently enacted Pregnancy Accommodation Rights Law. This law is not limited to city employees or contractors, but instead applies to all employers and employees working within the City.
While Philadelphia’s new law may impose additional burdens on employers, those burdens should be significantly lessened if employers take time to become informed about the law’s requirements. Specifically, the law makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee with needs related to pregnancy, child birth, or a related condition provided: (1) the employee requests such accommodations; and (2) the requested accommodations would not pose an undue hardship to the employer. Notably, the law does not require any form of documentation or support from a physician for an accommodation request – all that is required is an employee’s request to the employer.
Reasonable accommodations under the new law may include:
- restroom breaks
- periodic rest for those who stand for long periods of time
- assistance with manual labor
- leave for a period of disability arising from childbirth
- reassignment to a vacant position
- job restructuring
This list is not exhaustive, and other actions may be considered reasonable accommodations.
In light of this new law, employers with operations in Philadelphia should take the following steps:
- by April 20, 2014, obtain and conspicuously post in an area accessible to employees the Notice provided by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations;
- notify all existing Philadelphia-based employees of the new posting;
- review and make necessary revisions to their orientation materials;
- review and make necessary revisions to their leave of absence and reasonable accommodation policies; and
- train managers and human resources professionals on handling requests for accommodations from Philadelphia-based employees affected by pregnancy, including when the interactive process is triggered, the appropriate steps in that process, when accommodations must be granted, and what accommodations must be granted.
You may download a PDF version of the poster here:
http://www.phila.gov/HumanRelations/PDF/pregnancy_poster.pdf
Please contact us with any further questions.
*This Alert is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.