What is PWFA?
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”) is a new federal accommodation law that requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified workers for a known physical or mental condition related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, regardless of whether the condition meets the definition of disability under the ADA.
How does this impact ADA Assist?
As of 8/1/24, the certification form will not be provided to the employee after they submit a pregnancy request in ADA Assist. The reason the pregnancy certification form won’t be requested automatically on all pregnancy requests is that the PWFA requires significant emphasis on the employee’s self-confirmation and limits when employers can ask for certification.
A new button will be added, labeled "Certification Forms", located in the pending decision section, which will give Super Admins/Admins the option to require a certification form and determine a due date if needed. The Unum form and question path will be updated automatically. The Decision Guide within your ADA Assist Solution will also accurately reflect the new federal accommodation law.
What Admin Action is required on or after 8/1/24?
Turn on the pregnancy certification requirement for existing/future pregnancy accommodation requests as needed.
Turn off the certification requirements for existing pregnancy accommodation requests as needed.
Update & upload any custom pregnancy form your company created on 8/1/24.
Below are detailed instructions and images.
Turn on the pregnancy certification requirement for existing/future pregnancy accommodation requests as needed.
For all pregnancy requests, Admins decide when to ask employees to submit a certification for their request. The Decision Guide includes helpful information about the PWFA to assist Admins on when it may be appropriate to request a certification form. All Admins should review the updated decision guidance prior to requesting the certification forms from the employee.
Based on the PWFA’s regulations, if you would like to turn on certification forms for pending requests, there will be a new button labeled "Certification Forms", located in the employee's request within the Pending Decision tab. Selecting the button will allow you to turn on the requirement of the form. Admins can also select a customized due date for the form submission within the same Certification Form screen.
For existing pregnancy requests -Admins can elect to send the new Unum form to employees. To send the updated certification form, simply select the "Certification Forms" button to "turn it off" and then "turn it back on".
Turn off the certification requirements for existing Pregnancy Accommodation Requests as needed
If you have existing pregnant accommodation requests within the Pending Decision tab, they will be labeled "pregnancy". For all pregnancy requests, Admins decide when to ask employees to submit a certification for their request. The Decision Guide includes helpful information about the PWFA to assist Admins on when it may be appropriate to request a certification form. All Admins should review the updated decision guidance prior to requesting the certification forms from the employee.
Based on the PWFA’s regulations, if you would like to turn off certification forms for existing/pending requests, there will be a new button labeled "Certification Forms", located in the employee's request. Selecting the button will allow you to turn off the requirement of the form. For existing pregnancy requests, Admins can also chose to leave the certification form requirement as is within the pending request.
Update & upload any custom pregnancy form your company created.
If you have a custom pregnancy form, we suggest employers review and update custom pregnancy certification forms to be PWFA compliant. Updated custom forms must be uploaded on 8/1/24 to your ADA Assist Solution. The Unum form will be updated automatically as of 8/1/24. You are welcome to use the updated Unum certification form.