The Massachusetts Senate has unanimously voted to pass “An Act Establishing the Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act” (“MPWFA”) in an effort to make sure that pregnant and nursing employees receive the same protections under Mass. Gen. Laws Chapter 151B as do other protected classes of employees. The bill, which had previously unanimously passed
On December 22, 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated a key portion of a U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) regulation amending the minimum wage and overtime exemptions for “companionship” domestic service workers. The regulation was scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2015. On December 31, 2014, the Court
Following the example of several other states and municipalities, the Council of the District of Columbia recently enacted (and the Mayor of the District of Columbia recently signed) the Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2014 (the “Act”). The Act requires employers to provide reasonable workplace accommodations for workers whose ability to perform the functions
On September 3, Philadelphia made it unlawful for an employer to fail to reasonably accommodate the need to express breast milk, where the accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. The new law, which is now in effect, amends the city’s fair practices ordinance. Reasonable accommodations under the law include providing unpaid break time or
Philadelphia recently amended its fair employment practices ordinance to expand protection for employees against discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition. Among other things, employers must provide a written notice of rights to all existing employees by April 20, 2014, and to all new hires thereafter. For more on the new ordinance,
Proskauer recently issued a client alert on the release of the new pregnancy and employment rights notice in English. Now available on the New York City Commission on Human Rights Web site are foreign language versions of the new notice in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Italian, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.
For information on the time and