Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, pregnant women should never have to choose between maintaining a healthy pregnancy and their paycheck.

This critical bill will ensure that pregnant women get accommodations when they need them without facing discrimination and/or retaliation at work. It will especially help low-paid women--largely women of color and immigrants--working in jobs that require prolonged standing, long hours, irregular schedules, and heavy lifting or physical activity.

Many people can work just fine without accommodations through their pregnancy. However, some in physically demanding jobs need a temporary adjustment of their job duties and perhaps some rules during pregnancy so that they can continue to work and support their families.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is long overdue, and we think that it is common sense.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Washington, DC, May 11, 2021.

Dear Member of Congress: I write on behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose 850 congregations across North America encompass approximately 1.8 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 2,000 Reform rabbis, to express our support for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065).

Over 40 years since the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978, pregnant workers still face unjust barriers in the workplace. No worker should have to choose between their pregnancy and their family's financial security, yet due to the lack of explicit protections for pregnant workers needing onsite accommodations for medical or safety reasons, countless workers confront the agonizing choice between risking their health and facing forced leave, lost benefits, or possible termination.

As the inequitable impact of the pandemic has highlighted, People of Color are more likely to hold demanding, inflexible jobs where they face tradeoffs between their work and their health. Illegal pregnancy discrimination and denial of workplace accommodations, which disproportionately affect pregnant People of Color, contribute to the Black maternal health crisis and other forms of racial inequity.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) would mitigate these disparities by requiring employers to provide reasonable, temporary accommodations to pregnant workers so that they can remain in the workforce throughout their pregnancies. By requiring temporary adjustments similar to the accommodations employers already must provide through the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), pregnant workers would no longer be forced to choose between their pregnancies and their paychecks.

According to the ancient rabbis, workers should not be put in the position where they have ``to starve or afflict themselves in order to feed their children'' (Tosefta Bava Metzia 8:2). We are similarly taught that the fair treatment of all workers is a matter of tzedek, or justice. These moral imperatives guide our support for the bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and we strongly urge Congress to pass this bill to ameliorate the impact of discrimination against pregnant people in the workplace. Sincerely, Barbara Weinstein, Director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source