Alexa Miller Provides Overview of Pregnant Workers Fairness Act With New Jersey Law Journal

Labor and employment partner Alexa Miller recently gave an overview of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a measure aimed at extending job protections to pregnant workers, in the New Jersey Law Journal article “Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Draws Yet Another Challenge.”

The publication reported that the PWFA requires employers to provide accommodations to conditions regarding pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, and a recent lawsuit argues that the accommodations component requires it to provide leave for an employee to obtain an abortion.

Miller said that the PWFA is “common sense, reasonable, practical and, quite frankly, easy to accommodate.” She said that under the act, individuals are still deemed qualified if the inability to perform an essential function is for a temporary period, and that function could be performed in the near future.

She added “the final rules have sort of delved into what exactly does that mean, and they take a very expansive view of the term limitation.”

Previously, if a job applicant can’t perform a key function of the job, employers didn’t have to accommodate them; but now under the new regulations, they can be hired if the inability to perform that function is 40 weeks or less, Miller explained. “This is a significant shift in how employers typically navigate accommodations,” she said.