For individuals with disabilities, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §12101, and the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 791, afford equal employment opportunities in the form of reasonable workplace accommodations, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship. These laws are designed to help disabled workers to continue their employment or to find new employment opportunities. Reasonable accommodation is any change or adjustment to a job or work environment that permits a qualified applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the job application process, to perform the essential functions of a job, or to enjoy benefits and privileges of employment equal to those enjoyed by employees without disabilities. Examples of reasonable workplace accommodations include acquiring or modifying equipment or devices, job restructuring, part-time or modified work schedules, reassignment to a vacant position, adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials or policies, providing readers and interpreters, and making the workplace readily accessible to and usable by people with disabilities.

The federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), 42 U.S.C. § 2000gg, requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation to a qualified employee’s or applicant’s known limitations related to, affected by, or arising out of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship. Accommodations under the PWFA include additional, longer, or more flexible breaks to drink water, eat, rest, or use the restroom; changing food or drink policies to allow for a water bottle or food; changing equipment, devices, or workstations, such as providing a stool to sit on, or a way to do work while standing; changing a uniform or dress code or providing safety equipment that fits; changing a work schedule, such as having shorter hours, part-time work, or a later start time; telework; temporary reassignment; temporary suspension of one or more essential functions of a job; leave for health care appointments; light duty or help with lifting or other manual labor; or leave to recover from childbirth or other medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth (including, but not limited to, miscarriage). Tennessee has a similar statute known as the Tennessee Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, Tenn. Code Ann. §50-10-101. State and Federal law also protects the rights of nursing mothers to breastfeed or express breastmilk in the workplace and requires employers to provide break time and a private location for this activity. 

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave a year and requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave. Employees are also entitled to return to their same or an equivalent job at the end of their FMLA leave. The FMLA also provides certain military family leave entitlements. Eligible employees may take FMLA leave for specified reasons related to certain military deployments of their family members. Additionally, they may take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.

Eligible employees are those employees who have worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of leave; work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles; and have worked for the employer for 12 months. Only employers with 50 or more employees are covered by the FMLA.

Under the FMLA, eligible employees are entitled to leave for the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth; the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement; to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition; a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job; or to care for a servicemember with a serious injury or illness. Leave may be taken in continuous blocks of time or intermittently. On return from FMLA leave, absent unusual circumstances, the FMLA requires that the employer return the employee to the same job, or one that is nearly identical (equivalent).

When an employment requirement conflicts with an employee’s sincerely held religious belief, and this conflict is known by the employer, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Tennessee Human Rights Act require the employer to accommodate the employee’s religious belief, unless the employer demonstrates that it is unable to reasonably accommodate the employee’s religious belief without undue hardship to the employer’s business. The Supreme Court has clarified that the term “undue hardship” means substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of the employer’s particular business, with consideration given to the particular accommodations at issue and their practical impact in light of the nature, size and operating cost of the employer. Examples of religious workplace accommodations include flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, exemptions to vaccination requirements, and modifications to workplace policies or practices such as dress or grooming requirements.