Executive Summary
Overview: The Illinois Human Rights Act (“IHRA”) now offers additional protections for pregnant women in the workplace and additional responsibilities for employers with respect to their pregnant workers. Employers must post information about the new protections in a conspicuous location and include that information in their employee handbooks, if any. The Illinois Department of Human Rights published the required notice and a two-page fact sheet detailing the requirements of the new law. These documents can be found in English and Spanish on the Department’s website. Employers may post the notice in English and Spanish, but they may not post the Spanish version in lieu of the English version.
Coverage: All employers with employees in Illinois.
Effective Dates: Currently in effect.
Action Required:
• Post the new required poster/notice.
• Ensure compliance with the new law’s handbook notice requirement by distributing a new handbook policy (sample available on FormSource).
• Review policies, practices, and contractual agreements with respect to alternative work arrangements and restricted/light duty programs.
• Avoid “workers’ compensation light duty-only programs” that might exclude employees who are pregnant, or who have a medical condition related or commonly related to pregnancy or childbirth.
The Details
New Poster and Handbook Policy
Under the new law, and as we have communicated in a poster update announcement for IL, an employer must post in a conspicuous location the Department’s notice summarizing the requirements of the new law and providing information relating to the filing of a charge with the Department, including the right to be free from discrimination and the right to certain reasonable accommodations. In addition, employers must include the same information in any employee handbook that the employer maintains.
The required poster may be downloaded by clicking here. Clients may also order a new all-in-one state poster (which includes the new notice) by following these steps:
1) Select the HR tab on My TotalSource.
2) Click Poster Ordering under HR Quick Links.
A model handbook policy is available on FormSource in the state appendix new hire section and titled Handbook Update – Illinois Pregnancy Accommodation.
Non-discrimination and Accommodation Obligations
The new Illinois law (consistent with current federal law) adds pregnancy to the IHRA’s list of classes protected against discrimination. (The IHRA also covers race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, among other characteristics.) It defines “pregnancy” as “pregnancy, childbirth, or medical or common conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.”
Different and arguably greater obligations on businesses are imposed under the Illinois law than under federal laws, such as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), even after passage of the ADA Amendments Act (“ADAAA”).
The new law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees (and job applicants) for any medical or common condition related to pregnancy or childbirth and makes it unlawful to fail to hire or otherwise retaliate against an employee or applicant for requesting such accommodations.
If an employer demonstrates the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the “ordinary operation of the business of the employer,” however, the employer need not provide the requested accommodation. “Undue hardship” is an action that is “prohibitively expensive or disruptive.”
The new law defines reasonable accommodations as modifications or adjustments to the job application process, work environment, or circumstances under which a position is customarily performed. It provides a non-exclusive list of examples of reasonable accommodations, including:
- More frequent or longer bathroom breaks
- Breaks for increased water intake
- Breaks for periodic rest
- Private non-bathroom space for expressing breast milk and breastfeeding
- Seating accommodations
- Assistance with manual labor
- Light duty
- Temporary transfer to a less strenuous or non-hazardous position
- Acquisition or modification of equipment
- Job restructuring
- Part-time or modified work schedule
- Appropriate adjustment or modifications of examinations or training materials
- Assignment to a vacant position
- Provide leave
The law specifies that employers are not required to create additional employment positions that the employer otherwise would not have created, unless the employer does so or would do so for other classes of employees who needed accommodations. Similar to the ADA, the new law mandates that both the employer and employee engage in a “timely, good faith, and meaningful exchange to determine effective reasonable accommodations.”
The law prohibits employers from requiring that an employee or applicant accept an accommodation she did not request or from requiring that an employee or applicant accept the employer’s accommodation.
As always, please contact your HR Business Partner if you have any questions.
|
This content provides practical information concerning the subject matter covered and is provided with the understanding that ADP is not rendering legal advice.
|