Connecticut Enhances Protections for Pregnant Women in the Workplace

On July 6, 2017, Connecticut signed into law, “An Act Concerning Pregnant Women in the Workplace.”  This is an act which amends the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act and adds and modifies the protections for pregnant women.

The new act makes it illegal for employers to:

• limit, segregate or classify the employee in a way that would deprive her of employment opportunities due to her pregnancy;
• discriminate against an employee or person seeking employment on the basis of her pregnancy in the terms or conditions of her employment;
• make a reasonable accommodation for an employee or person seeking employment due to her pregnancy, unless the employer can demonstrate that such accommodation would impose an undue hardship on such employer;
• deny employment opportunities to an employee or person seeking employment if such denial is due to the employee’s request for a reasonable accommodation due to her pregnancy;
• force an employee or person seeking employment affected by pregnancy to accept a reasonable accommodation if such employee or person seeking employment (i) does not have a known limitation related to her pregnancy, or (ii) does not require a reasonable accommodation to perform the essential duties related to her employment;
• require an employee to take a leave of absence if a reasonable accommodation can be provided in lieu of such leave;
• retaliate against an employee in the terms, conditions or privileges of her employment based upon such employee’s request for a reasonable accommodation.

In addition, an employer must provide employees with written notice of the right to be free from discrimination in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions, including the right to a reasonable accommodation to the known limitations related to pregnancy.  Toward this end, there is a mandatory posting requirement for all employers.  These new changes become effective October 1, 2017 and posters must be in place by no later than January 28, 2018.

The Labor Law Center has already updated the all in one Connecticut Labor Law Poster to include this requirement so that you can be assured you will be fully compliant.

The Labor Law Center also offers a worry-free service to our customers through our Poster Service Plan with automatic replacements.  What this means is that we monitor the state and federal postings and automatically send you updates when they are released.  It is that simple!

We also offer our clients our newly updated Education Center.  If you are new to labor law compliance or just wanting to keep up with the latest news and changes as they come out, this is the place to bookmark and visit regularly.