Late on Tuesday (April 23, 2019) the CHRO released new Legal Enforcement Guidance on “Pregnancy, Childbirth, or Related Conditions at Work”.
Or you might call it a “Bluepaper” instead – as a “one-pager” on the subject called it.
That one-pager was prepared by the Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School’s Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization seemingly with the blessing and approval of the CHRO which also posted it to its website late Tuesday.
So is it a Bluepaper or Guidance? Well, it’s titled “Guidance” so let’s go with that. Indeed, the CHRO’s guidance here follows similar guidance released on other laws by the Connecticut Department of Labor such as this one on Paid Sick Leave.
What are the highlights of the guidance? In a lot of ways, the guidance mimics (as it should) the current law on the subject. It also mirrors the language already present in the posters released by the CHRO back in 2017. For example:
- Workers are entitled to reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions.
- Workers are entitled to reasonable leaves of absence due to disability resulting from pregnancy.
- Workers are entitled to reasonable accommodations and reasonable leaves of absences for any pregnancy-related condition or symptom.
- Workers are entitled to reasonable accommodations for lactation needs.
The guidance also clarifies that workers are entitled to confidentiality and that an “employee may choose to keep any medical diagnosis
confidential. Likewise, an employer should not directly contact the employee’s doctor without first obtaining the employee’s permission.”
Along with my firm, I’ll continue to review the guidance and provide an updated post with any notable findings in the next few days as well.
Employers, however, that have been following the new laws on pregnancy discrimination (see my post) should be well on their way to full compliance.
Until then, Happy Reading.
The post BREAKING: CHRO Issues New Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination appeared first on Connecticut Employment Law Blog.
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