The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has added twists to the rules that protect pregnant workers and other workers in the state against pregnancy-related discrimination.
New pregnancy leave and discrimination rules took effect in California Dec. 30, 2012.
Regulators proposed the regulations in November 2011, and the state Office of Administrative Law approved the regulations Nov. 30, 2012.
One section will apply the same rules that protect workers who are pregnant against discrimination to "any acts of discrimination based upon the perception that an employee is pregnant," according to Sabrina Shadi and Damon Brown of BakerHostetler.
California also now prohibits an employer from taking pregnancy, or perceived pregnancy, into account when transferring an employee to a new position over that employee's objections, and it prohibits an employer from requiring an employee who is pregnant, or perceived to be pregnant, to take a leave simply because of the actual or perceived pregnancy, Shadi and Brown report.
California also has converted the old 4-month pregnancy disability leave period into a leave period expressed in terms of the number of hours a worker normally would have worked over a 4-month period. A woman who worked 40 hours per week, for example, would get about 700 hours of pregnancy disability leave. Women in the state now can take pregnancy leave by reducing the number of hours they work each day rather than taking the leave all at once.
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