Alan G. Crone Explains New Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Employment law attorney, Alan Crone, was invited to join Total Information AM radio in St. Louis today to talk the newest law that can affect pregnant workers. We have a video, and we have transcribed the interview! Watch or listen listen below!
Megan Lynch
Welcome back to Total Information AM with Tom Ackerman. I’m Megan Lynch. A new law expands protections for the newest working mothers. It’s called the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Joining us to talk about what it means for workers and employers, employment law attorney, CEO and author, Alan Crone, with the Crone Law Firm. He joins us on the Quiver River Electric Guest Line. Good morning.
Alan Crone
Good morning, Megan. Thanks for having me on.
Megan
Well, thank you for joining us. We’ve got a lot of questions about this law. The first of which is, what was happening in the workplace that prompted passage of this?
Alan
Well, I’ve seen hundreds of pregnant women who announced they’re pregnant in the workforce and immediately start getting hassle about it, just to put it very plainly. So, this law, what it allows the courts to do, is to enforce a reasonable accommodation on the employer.
So that, for example, often pregnant women need to take a break or maybe they need to have a hydration break or other private time. This allows that if it’s a reasonable accommodation and not an undue hardship to the employer. They may also need pads or things on the floor to allow for standing. This just gives them a legal tool to enforce those reasonable accommodations.
Megan
Is it up to the employee then to negotiate what those reasonable accommodations would be?
Alan
Ideally, yes. Ideally, what would happen is she would go to her employer and request the reasonable accommodation, and then they would just work that out. The other thing that it does is it provides for an injunction to prohibit or prevent It’s not that people getting docket pay or fired or demoted because of a pregnancy.
There’s a lot of ignorance out there about what pregnant women can and can’t do or should or shouldn’t do. This just protects women who want to work up to the last appropriate time before they give birth.
Megan
For an employer, if they do something for one pregnant employee or someone who’s close to childbirth or has other related conditions, do they have to do the same thing for another employee?
Alan
Yes. Well, for another pregnant one. This law is modeled after the Americans with Disabilities Act, and It basically allows these accommodations to accommodate the physical condition, which, of course, is temporary.
In my experience, I’ve been practicing employment law for 30 years, and employers are generally concerned about precedent or whatnot. But usually, these accommodations are not intrusive at all. They’re not major. It’s mainly just to protect these women from being fired or laid off because of their pregnancy, which is what often happens.
Megan
Does it cover other forms of workplace retaliation?
Alan
Well, yes. If a woman requests the accommodation or request an accommodation or just otherwise informs them that she’s pregnant and she receives an adverse employment action, this law would allow her to seek remedies for that retaliation if it caused economic harm.
Megan
We’re speaking with Employment Law attorney, Alan Crone, of the Crone Law Firm. What about penalties for companies that violate this law?
Alan
Well, the main penalty is economic sanction. For example, if the woman’s pay is docked and they have to reimburse that, there’s certain confidentiality provisions that have to be observed. The women can also recover their attorney’s fees. A violation could be quite significant for an employer The business has to have 15 or more employees before they’re covered. So, these are going to be fairly good-sized businesses.
Megan
I’m thinking of scenarios for a woman. She’s pregnant, she’s already dealing with all of this. Maybe she’s having some complications that require her to ask for these accommodations. What would women have to do to prove the law had been violated? Who would step in and what would be that process?
Alan
Well, usually to If you do something like that, your own testimony is sufficient. The practical problem with most pregnancy situations, as I said before, they’re temporary. Pregnancy, obviously, is nine months, and it really becomes obvious four to six months into the pregnancy. You’re not talking about a whole lot of time.
That was always the problem with the original Pregnancy Discrimination Act was that the remedies are, sometimes they’re not very hard. Sometimes it’s hard to find a lawyer who be interested in taking the case.
Now, They can go to the EEOC, which enforces the law. A lot of times, if you just inform your employer about the law, about what their responsibilities, most employers will follow along. They may not like it, but they’ll follow along. It’s just unfortunate that pregnant women have to go through this. As you said, they’re dealing with a lot of issues coming down on them all at once and to have to pursue a legal action at the same time is a little unfair.
Megan
One last question for you, Alan. From a business perspective, as I know we have a lot of listeners who own businesses in this area, are there protections What happens in this law for them as far as how far they have to go in providing accommodations?
Alan
Yeah, the law requires that they provide the accommodation as long as it’s reasonable. As I said, the Americans with Disabilities Act has flushed out the definition of the word reasonable in this context. Then even more so, it can’t impose an undue hardship on the employer.
If the employee is asking for significant time off, or maybe they’re asking, Look, I’m going to be unavailable for the next three weeks, and they don’t have any PTO or other employment benefits, and it’s an undue hardship for them to hold their job, then they may not have to, or if they’re asking for some elaborate physical reconstruction of the space or alteration of the job, and The employer can show that it’s an undue hardship, then they don’t have to grant the accommodation.
So it’s supposed to be a give and take. It’s supposed to be an interactive process, as you said before, Megan, to negotiate this. Again, as a practical matter, the biggest problem is a lot of people are not experienced in these types of negotiations. It’s good to hire a lawyer to help you with I have found that usually when we get involved in these kinds of cases, it’s three or four phone calls, and we can usually get it resolved. I think now the law gives a big incentive to employers to be reasonable about it.
Megan
All right. Well, Alan, thank you so much. We really appreciate your insight on this this morning.
Alan
My pleasure, Megan. Thank you very much.
Megan
That is Employment Law Attorney, Alan Crone, with the Crone Law Firm, joining us on Total Information AM.