Vermont Pregnancy Accommodation in Effect January 1, 2018

Effective January 1, 2018, employers in Vermont are required to work with pregnant employees and new mothers to make reasonable accommodations in the workplace that coincide with pregnancy or the birth of a child.  Ignoring an employee’s request for reasonable accommodation, firing the employee for making a request or other retaliation could result in employer damages and/or civil penalties.

Examples of pregnancy related accommodations include:

• More breaks for the bathroom, water intake, or rest
• Access to a chair or stool
• Time off for prenatal appointments
• A private, clean space for breast feeding
• Assistance with specific duties, such as manual labor or heavy lifting
• Time off to recover from medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth

With reasonable requests, employers should do their best to accommodate the request.  If, however, the accommodation constitutes an undue hardship on the business, causing unduly expensive or unworkable solutions, an employer is not obligated to fully accommodate the request.

Notice Requirement

There is a mandatory posting of the Vermont Pregnancy Accommodation Act which must be prominently displayed in the workplace where all employees can see.

At The Labor Law Center we continually monitor local, state and federal posting requirements and will make them available as soon as they are released .  The All-In-One Vermont Labor Law Poster is now available with all of the latest updates, including the Pregnancy Accommodation notice.

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 clients our popular 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.