Last month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a set of proposed regulations to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). The agency’s proposal takes an expansive view of the requirements imposed by the law.

Taking effect this June, the PWFA was intended to fill a gap in federal workplace protection laws. The law guarantees employees the right to reasonable accommodation for known limitations connected to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Mirroring language in the Americans with Disabilities Act, the PWFA requires covered employers to provide accommodation unless doing so would pose an “undue hardship.”

The PWFA specifically applies to reasonable accommodation; other federal laws already protect pregnant workers against retaliation, unlawful termination, and other forms of workplace discrimination. The new law makes clear that pregnant workers have the right to reasonable accommodation regardless of whether they can demonstrate a pregnancy-related disability or that other similarly-situated employees were granted accommodation.

Under the PWFA, employers cannot retaliate against workers who request accommodations, require an employee to take leave instead of providing reasonable accommodation, or discriminate against employees who request an accommodation. The PWFA is meant to supplement, rather than replace, existing protections afforded by Title VII, the ADA, and other federal, state, and local laws. The PWFA only applies to discriminatory conduct that arose on or after June 27, 2023, the law’s effective date.

The EEOC’s proposed rules implementing the PWFA reflect an intention to grant expansive protections to workers. The regulations clarify that workers with healthy and normal pregnancies (referred to by the EEOC as “uncomplicated” pregnancies) are entitled to accommodation; there’s no threshold for severity of complications to give rise to a proper request.

The proposed rules employ broad definitions for “pregnancy,” “childbirth,” and “related medical conditions” for the purposes of the PWFA. Pregnancy and childbirth “include, but are not limited to, current pregnancy; past pregnancy; potential or intended pregnancy; labor; and childbirth.” The proposed rules include a long, non-exhaustive list of “medical conditions which relate to, are affected by, or arise out of pregnancy or childbirth.”

The rules also expound upon how the agency intends to interpret various other terms included in the PWFA, such as “temporary,” “essential functions,” and “communicated to the employer.”

The EEOC includes a variety of examples of reasonable accommodation, such as job restructuring, assistive tools, part-time or modified work schedules, additional breaks, paid and unpaid leave, remote work, and light-duty assignments. The proposed regulations also provide a number of factors that must be considered when evaluating whether an accommodation would create an “undue hardship,” meaning a “significant difficulty or expense.” Factors include the cost of the accommodation, the size and financial resources of the employer, and the anticipated duration of the requested accommodation, among others.

The EEOC’s proposed regulations were approved by a bi-partisan majority vote of the Commission on August 1. The rules will be open for public comment for 60 days before they are made final.