Mayor Michael A. Nutter recently signed legislation amending the City's Fair Practices Ordinance to prohibit pregnancy-related discrimination and require employers to provide reasonable workplace accommodations for employees who have needs related to pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. The ordinance extends protections beyond those in the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It became effective January 20, 2014.
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The ordinance extends the prohibition on
sex-based discrimination to include “pregnancy, childbirth, or a related
medical condition” within its definition of “sex.” Similar to the newly
enacted New Jersey law requiring accommodation of pregnancy-related conditions,
the ordinance also goes further and makes it an unlawful discriminatory
employment practice not to provide reasonable accommodations to an employee
who requests such accommodations to allow her to perform the essential
functions of her position.
Like the New Jersey law, it also allows
for exceptions to the mandate if the accommodations will cause an undue
hardship to the employer. Accommodations 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, and job restructuring.
Factors considered in assessing an
employer’s claim of undue hardship include:
Employers must post a notice of employees’
rights no later than 90 days after the effective date of the law.
Aggrieved employees have the same remedies
as those for other unlawful employment practices, including injunctive or
other equitable relief, compensatory damages, punitive damages, and
reasonable attorneys’ fees.
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Source: Ballard Spahr's Labor and Employment Group
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