New law to protect pregnant workers

A new law signed yesterday by Gov. Charlie Baker assures that women won’t be forced to choose between a healthy pregnancy and keeping their jobs, according to advocates for working women.

The measure approved by the Legislature requires employers to offer “reasonable accommodations” to pregnant workers and makes it illegal to fire or refuse to hire a worker because of pregnancy. Accommodations could include temporary transfers to less strenuous positions, providing workers with a stool to sit on or more frequent bathroom breaks.

It would also require employers to provide time and private space for nursing mothers to pump breast milk.

Baker suggested the rules were “long overdue,” adding they would help expectant and working mothers support their families and raise healthy children.

Among those attending the signing ceremony at the State House was Alejandra Duarte, who in April delivered powerful testimony to a legislative committee about how she lost her baby at 19 weeks after working 10-hour shifts at an industrial laundry facility in Worcester.

Duarte said after the ceremony that she hopes the new law would assure that no other woman suffers as she did.

Democratic Sen. Joan Lovely, a co-sponsor of the bill, said women like Duarte “should not have to choose between having a healthy pregnancy and earning an income for her family.”

Businesses could seek an exemption from the law, which takes effect next April, if they could prove compliance would result in an “undue hardship.”