Due to a number of rights violations against pregnant workers, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidelines on pregnancy discrimination this past Monday for the first time in 30 years.
It's expected that these new guidelines will have an impact in the workplace as well as the courtroom. The EEOC adopted expanded rules to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that was passed in 1978 and now clearly state that any form of workplace discrimination or harassment against pregnant workers by employers is a form of sexual discrimination. Additionally, any discrimination against female workers based on past or prospective future pregnancies is illegal.
"Despite much progress, we continue to see a significant number of charges alleging pregnancy discrimination, and our investigations have revealed the persistence of overt pregnancy discrimination, as well as the emergence of more subtle discriminatory practices," said EEOC Chairwoman Jacqueline A. Berrien in this Fox Business article.
The guidelines also note that any sort of parental leave, whether dealing with a man or a woman, must be treated on the same terms. Employers are prohibited from forcing pregnant workers to take leave if they're still able to work and employers must provide accommodation for workers who have pregnancy-related impairments, such as gestational diabetes or preeclampsia (and now, after childbirth, lactation is covered as a pregnancy-related medical condition).
These new guidelines come after recent EEOC data that revealed a 46% increase in pregnancy-related complaints between 1997-2011 and also two weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to consider a dispute over the EEOC's duty to try and settle charges of job discrimination before filing lawsuits against employers. Proponents of the guidelines believe this was a powerful move to subjugate employers to adhere to the laws, consider them with prudence, and reduce the unlawful and unequal treatment of pregnant women in the workplace.
According to the EEOC, the rise in complaints could be attributed to a number of reasons: the presence of more women in the workforce, their increasing status as breadwinners of American households, the fact that they're working longer into their pregnancies, and the greater number of women who are having children at an older age. Whatever the reasons, the new federal guidelines are likely to eliminate these excessive violations.
You can read more about the EEOC's new pregnancy discrimination guidelines in this Aljazeera America news article.
