Develop a Pregnancy Accommodation Policy

Key Points

• An employer should familiarize itself with the pregnancy accommodation law(s) for the jurisdiction(s) in which it conducts business, or has employees working in, and then prepare a policy that complies with the law.
• Pregnancy accommodation laws generally require covered employers to provide employees (and sometimes job applicants) with reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and health conditions related to pregnancy, as long as the accommodation would not impose an undue hardship on the employer's business.
• An employer should prepare a pregnancy accommodation policy that informs employees about the availability of reasonable accommodations related to pregnancy and guides employees on how to request an accommodation.
• The policy should include examples of reasonable accommodations from the law.
• A multistate employer that has employees covered by different pregnancy accommodation laws must decide if it will have separate policies for each jurisdiction or if it will prepare a universal pregnancy accommodation policy that meets the legal requirements for all applicable laws.

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