This law is a lifeline for pregnant workers even as an abortion dispute complicates its enforcement
A new law strengthening protections for pregnant workers has been a lifeline to many low-wage women seeking accommodations from employers who might otherwise have forced them into unpaid leave
NEW YORK — Victoria Cornejo Barrera thought the legal helpline for workers sounded too good to be true and wondered if it was a scam.
A month earlier, Cornejo Barrera had been forced to take leave from her job as head custodian at a South Carolina high school after she turned in a doctor's note asking to be exempt from tasks like climbing ladders and lifting more than 20 pounds because she was pregnant.
She spent a month crying and blaming herself for thinking she could keep her job while pregnant. She used up all her accumulated paid time off because she couldn't afford to go without a paycheck. Then she got a notice from human resources saying she would have to start paying $600 a month to stay on health insurance while on unpaid leave.
“I was feeling so guilty. I was feeling like my pregnancy was the problem,” Cornejo Barrera said.
Searching for help online, she came across the website run by the legal advocacy organization A Better Balance, explaining about a federal law called the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that entitled her to the types of accommodations she had been seeking. It had gone into effect in June 2023, a month before she was pushed out of her job.
Was the law really on her side? Cornejo Barrera called the helpline.
Nearly 500 workers in similar circumstances have contacted A Better Balance's legal helpline in the year since the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which strengthens the rights of workers to seek accommodations for pregnancy-related needs. The experiences of those workers tell
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