New Jersey Lawyers BlogPregnancy Discrimination Under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination
New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (the “LAD”) covers a wide variety of activities and relationships, including employment relationships. It makes it unlawful to discriminate against an employee or potential employee on the basis of race, national origin, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and several other specified classifications.
In January of 2014, Governor Christie signed into law a bill (S2995) that both protects pregnant employees from discrimination and requires employers to provide pregnant employees with reasonable accommodations so that they can continue working. The Act applies both to women who are currently pregnant and those who have recently given birth. Therefore, if the pregnant woman, or woman who recently gave birth, requires accommodations in the form of, for instance, a modified schedule, additional breaks, or less strenuous work duties, as long as those accommodations are reasonable under the circumstances, the employer must allow them and cannot retaliate against the employee for needing, using, or asking for those accommodations.
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