Breanna Harris
Contributing Writer
bharris17@murraystate.edu
A new state law requires Murray State to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant faculty, staff and students.
Gov. Matt Bevin signed Senate Bill 18, the Kentucky Pregnant Workers Act in late June, which expressly prohibits employment discrimination in relation to an employee’s pregnancy.
Kentucky became the 25th state to pass this type of legislation.
The new act amends the Kentucky Civil Rights Act as it relates to pregnancy by requiring employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, unless it would impose an undue hardship on the employer to do so.
Murray State assists students who are pregnant by providing larger desks, rescheduling tests or exams, and excusing absences due to pregnancy or related conditions.
“I do wish that there was parking for pregnant women,” Makenna Crowley, a junior from Princeton, Kentucky, said. “I am not bothered that much by parking a little ways away from the buildings where my classes are right now, but I know that when I am eight months pregnant, it will not be nearly as easy to get around.”
Under the KPWA, it’s illegal for an employer to fail to make reasonable arrangements for any employee with restrictions related to pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition who requests an accommodation.
According to the law, those arrangements include but are not limited to:
(1) the need for more frequent or longer breaks;
(2) time off to recover from childbirth;
(3) acquisition or modification of equipment;
(4) appropriate seating;
(5) temporary transfer to a less strenuous or less hazardous position;
(6) job restructuring;
(7) light duty; modified work schedule;
(8) private space that is not a bathroom for expressing breast milk.
“Murray State University has a reasonable accommodation process available to faculty, staff and students through the Office of Institutional Diversity Equity and Access, Shawn Touney, director of communication said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor website, the University is required to provide a private place for employees to express breast milk.
“A bathroom, even if private, is not a permissible location under the Act,” according to the website.
The location must be a functional space for expressing breast milk. If the space is not dedicated entirely to the nursing mother’s use, it must be available when needed in order to meet the statutory requirement.
“A space temporarily created or converted into a space for expressing milk or made available when needed by the nursing mother is sufficient provided that the space is shielded from view, and free from any intrusion from co-workers and the public,” according to the website.
In January, prior to SB18 being signed into law, the Faculty and Staff Insurance and Benefits Committee recommended that University administration look into a suitable location for one or more lactation rooms on campus.
The Faculty and Staff Insurance and Benefits Committee recommended that the University administration look into a suitable location for one or more lactation rooms on campus. A lactation room has been incorporated in the Blackburn Science Building renovations, Touney said.
The Kentucky Pregnant Workers Act includes the first lactation accommodation in the state for covered Kentucky employers and defines a related medical condition to include lactation and the need to express breast milk for a nursing child.
Faculty, staff and students who would like to request accommodations that are related to pregnancy, childbirth or any related medical condition, can contact the Office of Institutional Diversity Equity and Access, which is located in 103 Wells Hall or (270) 809-3155.