Skip to main content

Updated: Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Clears House of Representatives

 

Recently, with the U.S House of Representatives voting 329 - 73 in favor of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the legislation moves to the Senate for further debate and (unlikely) vote.

Readers will recall that last month I had highlighted this legislation as one to keep an eye on.  The legislation, sponsored by Democrats (who have majority control of the House), would require employers to provide reasonable accommodations to help pregnant workers continue working as well as prohibit employers from denying employment opportunities to these workers because they are pregnant.

As I had noted in my prior post, even with this legislation clearing the House (by a sizable margin), I think it is unlikely it will get very far in the Senate for a few reasons.  For starters, the Senate is in effect operating on a limited capacity for a few weeks because of several Senators testing positive for the coronavirus.  As well, once the Senate gets back to business as usual, I suspect the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the United States Supreme Court will occupy much of the Senate’s time.  With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell likely making other legislation a priority while Republicans have majority control of the Senate (possibly only for a limited time, depending the outcome of several Senate races on November 3rd), the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act will likely languish in a Senate Committee for the time being.  The one hope for advocates of the legislation?  Either Democrats gain majority control of the Senate in November or enough Republican Senators voice their support for passage of the legislation that the Senate Majority Leader acquiesces and allows a floor vote.  

Stay tuned.


For additional information:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2694/text

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies i...
Post a Comment
Read more

What I've Been Reading This Week

Recently, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Commissioner, Chai Feldblum, had her re-nomination on the brink, after Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee took steps to block it .  Readers might have heard that late last week, Commissioner Feldblum's re-nomination quietly slipped away and she tweeted out a thank you to supporters and friends, acknowledging that her time at the EEOC was over.  While there has not been much in the way of a further update in regard to that ongoing saga, we wait to see how things will play out at the EEOC, now that it has lost a quorum until additional Commissioners are confirmed by the Senate. For the time being, there are other developments for readers to review this week.  In particular, I call attention to the article on managing a wage & hour audit by the Department of Labor as well as steps an employer can take to better ensure compliance with the ADA. As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week. ...
Post a Comment
Read more