Colorado’s Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was signed into law earlier this month on June 1! A Better Balance worked with our partners at 9to5 Colorado, MomsRising.org, and many others in Colorado for this tremendous bipartisan victory by providing legal and technical advice for the campaign.
The law, which goes into effect on August 10, 2016, protects pregnant Coloradans from being pushed off the job when they need a modest accommodation to keep working. The law requires most employers to provide pregnant employees, and employees physically recovering from childbirth or a related condition, with “reasonable accommodations,” or changes to their work duties or schedule, so they can stay healthy and stay on the job, as long as these changes do not cause an undue hardship for the employer.
Accommodations listed in the bill include, but are not limited to: “more frequent or longer break periods; more frequent restroom, food, and water breaks; acquisition or modification of equipment or seating; limitations on lifting; temporary transfer to a less strenuous or hazardous position if available, with return to the current position after pregnancy; job restructuring; light duty, if available; assistance with manual labor; or modified work schedules.”
In addition, under the law your employer cannot take adverse action against you for requesting or using an accommodation.
You can view http://babygate.abetterbalance.org/colorado/ to learn more about your rights as a pregnant worker or a worker with family responsibilities.
We hope that many states will follow in Colorado’s footsteps to provide protections so pregnant workers can stayed healthy and employed, and we look forward to helping other coalitions!
