On March 6, 2014, the West Virginia Senate passed the
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PFWA”). Now that the bill has been passed by
both the House and the Senate, it will move on to the desk of the Governor. If
the Governor signs the bill, which is expected, then the PWFA will become law.
Once signed into law, the PWFA will ensure that current
protections against employer discrimination will extend to pregnant workers.
The PWFA allows employees to request modified duties and other accommodations
from employers, so long as the accommodations do not place undue hardship on
employers.
Consider a situation where a pregnant employee occasionally
has some duties that require heavy lifting but the employee has been advised by
her health care provider to not lift more than twenty pounds. Under the PFWA,
an employer should temporarily reassign these heavy lifting duties to another
employee, so long as this reassignment does not cause undue hardship to the
employer’s business.
Once the PFWA becomes law, pregnant employees will be able
to file complaints against employers through the West Virginia Human Rights
Commission and the Commission may then investigate the pregnant workers’
claims. Employers should also be aware that the PFWA makes it improper to deny
employment opportunities to job
applicants out of concern that the applicant may ask the employer to make
some adjustments due to a pregnancy.
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