Philadelphia Pregnancy Protections and New Required Poster

The City of Philadelphia has amended its Fair Practices Ordinance: Protections Against Unlawful Discrimination to require employers to provide reasonable accommodation for employees with special needs resulting from pregnancy or childbirth.

The Ordinance revision adds pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical issues as conditions protected against discrimination in employment opportunities, public accommodations, and housing.

How Philadelphia Employers Need to Accommodate Pregnancy and Childbirth

Philadelphia employers must provide eligible employees reasonable accommodation for workers who are pregnant, new mothers, or who suffer from a pregnancy-related or childbirth-related medical condition, as long as the accommodation doesn’t pose an undue hardship to the business.

Reasonable accommodations include:

• Restroom breaks
• Periodic rest breaks
• Assistance with manual labor
• Maternity leave
• Reassignment to a vacant position
• Job restructuring

Philadelphia Employers Claiming Undue Hardship

In order to demonstrate undue hardship, an employer must demonstrate cost and operational impacts that would impair normal business operations and budgets.

New Philadelphia Pregnancy Poster Requirement

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations (PCHR) released a new Protecting Pregnant Employees posting that informs employees of their right to be free from discrimination in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions. Employers must provide the posting to all new and existing employees by April 20, 2014.

The GovDocs Research Department has confirmed with the Philadelphia Human Resources Compliance Department that the posting is required for Philadelphia employers, in spite of language in the ordinance suggesting the posting is optional.

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City Posting Compliance

GovDocs monitors more than 50 cities in the U.S. for required workplace posters – more than any other provider in the industry. If your compliance program needs City Postings, contact us today to see how GovDocs can help you achieve complete posting compliance.

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