Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act now is much more protective for pregnant employees

By Jack Tuckner, Esq.

If you’re pregnant and you work in Connecticut for an employer with at least three employees, you are covered by the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act, and that law was recently amended at the end of 2017 to make it much more protective for pregnant employees, way more so than the Federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act which, by the way, requires 15 employees for coverage.

So, if you work for a small employer in Connecticut, and your employer isn’t being flexible with you during your pregnancy, isn’t allowing you to sit down occasionally, or to take time to go to doctors, or to take a maternity leave; or when you come back from maternity leave, to express milk at work for your baby – all of this is now required by the Connecticut Human Rights Law with regard to your sex and your pregnancy. And again, your employer is not allowed to discriminate against you, treat you worse as a result of your pregnant status, but even more importantly, your employer must be compassionate, frankly. The legal term for compassion and flexibility is reasonable accommodation, and unless what you need as a pregnant employee is an undue hardship on your employer—that they have to prove—they must bend over backwards for you because you’re pregnant, just like you would expect them to do; just like your family would do, if you worked for them. That’s the new Connecticut law. And if you’re struggling with pregnancy-related issues at a job in Connecticut, and need confidential advice on your workplace challenges, give me a call. Jack Tuckner, or, shoot me an email. I’m licensed in Connecticut as well as New York, and we’ll  brainstorm together about your pregnancy-related workplace challenges.