New Legislation in Illinois: Employers to Provide Reasonable Accommodations for Medical and Common Conditions Related to Pregnancy

November 2014

By Francis M. Brady

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 and the Illinois Human Rights Act have long prohibited discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. Recent amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/2-102, which take effect on January 1, 2015, will provide additional rights to employees in Illinois beyond protection from discrimination based on pregnancy. Under the amended statute, employers in Illinois will be required to provide reasonable accommodations for any medical or common condition related to pregnancy or childbirth if requested by an employee. The amended statute provides a non-exclusive list of the types of reasonable accommodations employers may be required to provide. For example, reasonable accommodations may include: breaks for periodic rest; private non-bathroom space for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk; seating; assistance with manual labor; modified work schedule; and acquisition or modification of equipment.

The employer may request documentation from the employee's healthcare provider concerning the need for the requested reasonable accommodation to the same extent documentation is requested for conditions related to disability, so long as the employer's request for documentation is job related and consistent with business necessity. It is the obligation of the employee requesting a reasonable accommodation to supply this documentation to the employer.

Employers are not required to provide a reasonable accommodation if the requested accommodation would impose an "undue hardship" on the employer. As set forth in the amended statute, undue hardship means "an action that is prohibitively expensive or disruptive" when considered in light of a list of factors set forth in the statute. Among the factors taken into consideration are the cost of the accommodation, the financial resources and size of the employer and the impact of the accommodation on the operations of the employer. The burden of proving an undue hardship rests with the employer.

The amendment also includes an important notice provision. Employers must post in a conspicuous location on the premises of the employer, and include in any employee handbook, a notice concerning employee's rights under this article of the Illinois Human Rights Act. The statute provides that the Illinois Department of Human Rights "shall make the documents required under this paragraph available" for retrieval from its website. The Illinois Department of Human Rights has not yet made the notice documentation required by the amended statute on its website.

In order to comply with the new requirements of 775 ILCS 5/2-102 of the Illinois Human Rights Act, employers in Illinois should be prepared to respond to employee requests for reasonable accommodations beginning on January 1, 2015. In addition, employers should monitor the Illinois Department of Human Rights website for publication of the notice documentation required for compliance with the notice provisions under the new law.