Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, and Reproductive Rights in New Jersey

The New Jersey Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), enacted in 2014, added “pregnancy” as an LAD-protected characteristic. “Breastfeeding” was likewise added as an LAD-protected characteristic in 2018. As a result of these changes, the LAD protects employees against discrimination and bias-based harassment based on pregnancy, recovery from childbirth, lactation, and related conditions.

The PWFA also added additional protections for employees who are pregnant or lactating, including that an employer cannot penalize an employee in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment for requesting or using an accommodation, and cannot engage in “unequal” or “unfavorable” treatment of an employee who is pregnant, recovering from childbirth, or lactating.

An employer cannot fire; refuse to hire; or change the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment for an employee because of pregnancy, childbirth, recovery from childbirth, lactation, or related conditions. An employer must also address any harassment an employee receives because of pregnancy, childbirth, lactation, or related conditions.

These protections apply to anyone pregnant or lactating, including transgender, nonbinary, or gender nonconforming persons.

For more information on unlawful gender-based discrimination, see DCR’s resources, listed below.

The LAD requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee the employer knows, or should know, is pregnant unless doing so would constitute an undue hardship to the employer’s business.

This means that an employee has the right to request changes to their job or workplace (known as reasonable accommodations) so that they can continue to work and maintain their health during their pregnancy and postpartum. An employer must make these changes unless they can show that making the changes would be so expensive or difficult that it would be an undue hardship for the employer to make them.

Some examples of possible reasonable accommodations include, but are not limited to:

• More break time
• Changed eating/drinking policies
• Workstation changes/relocation
• Time off/flexible scheduling
• Flexibility to attend doctor’s appointments
• Changes to uniforms/dress codes
• Sitting/standing more often
• Help with manual labor
• Changes to job duties, expectations, production standards, or quotas
• Remote work
• Temporary transfer to a different position

For more information on reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and related conditions, see DCR’s resources, listed below.

This means that an employer is required to make changes to an employee’s job or workplace so that the employee is able to express milk while at work, unless making the changes would be so expensive or difficult that it would be an undue hardship for the employer to make them.

To facilitate milk expression at work, the LAD expressly requires employers to provide, at a minimum:

• Reasonable break time; and
• A suitable space to express milk that is
  • private,
  • not a bathroom stall, and
  • close to where the employee works.

The terms lactating and lactation mean all methods of feeding a child human milk, including breastfeeding, chestfeeding, bodyfeeding, and expressing milk to feed a child. Breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and bodyfeeding are all forms of directly feeding milk to a child. Milk expression includes manually expressing milk and pumping milk.

For more information on reasonable accommodations for lactation and related conditions, see DCR’s resources, listed below.

For more information on job-protected leave under the NJFLA, see DCR’s resources, listed below.