On July 14, 2014, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) issued its long-anticipated Enforcement Guidance:
Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues (Guidance). The
Guidance is controversial on several fronts. It contains
substantive provisions that arguably impose requirements on
employers beyond those required by the relevant federal statutes.
The EEOC's process in issuing the Guidance and the decision to
issue it now also has raised opposition.
The Guidance was approved along party lines, with the two
Republican Commissioners, Constance Barker and Victoria Lipnic,
voting against the Guidance and the three Democratic Commissioners,
Chair Jacqueline Berrien, Vice Chair Jenny Yang, and Commissioner
Chai Feldblum, voting in favor. Commissioners Barker and Lipnic
expressed concern that the Guidance was not made available for
public comment before it was issued (Public Statement of
Commissioner Constance S. Barker, dated July 14, 2014; Statement of
the
