Law views pregnancy as short-term disability

A business with at least 15 employees must comply with the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The act prohibits discrimination due to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition. There can be no discrimination in pay, compensation, hiring, transfers, promotions, assignments, layoffs, recalls, terminations, job advertisements, recruiting practices, applicant testing, job classifications, fringe benefits, disability leave, retirement plans, usage of corporate facilities, training and apprenticeship programs, or other terms and conditions of employment. An individual cannot be denied employment opportunities due to marriage to or association with a pregnant female.

A company cannot refuse to hire a pregnant job candidate if she can perform the major functions of the job or due to the prejudices of co-workers, clients or the organization itself. Fetal protection practices also are illegal.

Corporations must provide pregnant staff with the same benefits as those with a short-term disability. The law views pregnancy as any other short-term disability, such as a broken leg. In addition, it is illegal to force a pregnant female to resign or take a leave of absence.

An enterprise is mandated to comply with the Missouri Fair Employment Practices Act if at least six individuals are employed. This act prohibits the termination of employment of women temporarily disabled due to childbirth when sufficient leave is unavailable.

There are 10 steps that can be taken to minimize liability and increase the likelihood of winning lawsuits.

1. Create a short-term disability policy and include it in the employee handbook. Request that a health care provider complete a medical certification form, certifying that the associate can work. Be sure to provide information to the health care provider about the job duties of the position so he can reach the most educated decision. The enterprise has the right to ask the worker to obtain a second opinion from a health care provider chosen by the establishment. If the two opinions conflict, the team member and business can seek a third opinion from a provider mutually agreed upon. The company must pay for the second and third opinions.

2. Try to accommodate any modified-duty requirements.

3. Transfer her to a different position, if possible, and offer comparable pay and benefits.

4. Create and maintain up-to-date job descriptions clearly defining expectations and physical requirements.

5. Develop a standardized, legally compliant new hire, transfer and promotion processes.

6. Document why individuals are selected for training, demotion, firing or recall.

7. Develop legally sound performance evaluations and salary determination processes.

8. Utilize consistent, progressive discipline practices.

9. Require management training of current, newly hired and promoted supervisors, thereby proving a “good faith” effort to prevent any discrimination.

10. Have all applicants and existing staff entering high-risk, hazardous jobs sign an acknowledgment-of-risk form. Include statements that they were fully informed of known or potential reproductive hazards and chose to work in the positions anyway.

Compliance terms of both the federal and state laws are straightforward and unavoidable. Employees are quite savvy with these statues, so be sure your business is, too.

Lynne Haggerman is president/owner of Haggerman & Associates, a firm providing outplacement, retained search and management consulting/training on human resource issues.