AG, treasurer push work protections for pregnancies
A bill that would strengthen protections for pregnant women in the workplace and allow for reasonable accommodations has the support of Treasurer Deb Goldberg and Attorney General Maura Healey.
"Here in our commonwealth, in the 21st century, we should not force women to choose between earning a paycheck to provide for their family and maintaining a healthy pregnancy," Goldberg said Tuesday in testimony before the Labor and Workforce Development Committee. "I can't even imagine... it's something that just makes no sense."
The bill would prohibit an employer from denying "reasonable accommodations" for a job applicant or employee related to pregnancy or childbirth, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship.
Possible accommodations might include allowing a pregnant worker to use a stool while working at a cash register, to carry a bottle of water while on the job or the temporary transfer to a less hazardous position, according to the advocacy group MotherWomen.
"We need (to) make sure employers are responsive to the needs of working women," Healey said. "Seventy-five percent of the women in the workforce in our state at one point will become pregnant in their working lives and they are sometimes forced out of a job or forced to take absences from work at a time when they and their families need the income security the most."
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