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Read. Follow. Verify.North Carolina bans workplace discrimination based on pregnancy and requires reasonable accommodations
Last action · April 14, 2025: Ref To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House (House action)Sponsors: von Haefen and 21 others
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What This Bill Would Do
North Carolina prohibits employers from discriminating against workers based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions and requires them to provide reasonable accommodations and temporary leave. Effective upon becoming law, the measure allows affected individuals to file civil lawsuits within three years to seek back pay, reinstatement, and damages.
Workers gain explicit legal rights to request workplace accommodations such as modified schedules, seating, and lactation breaks, while employers with 15 or more employees face statutory liability and potential civil litigation for pregnancy-based discrimination.
Who It Would Affect
Groups the bill's text would affect if enacted, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Employees
Workers gain explicit protections against pregnancy-related employment discrimination, the right to temporary disability leave, and entitlements to workplace accommodations.
Employers
Employers must grant pregnancy-related leave, provide workplace accommodations unless undue hardship is proven, and comply with new non-discrimination mandates subject to civil litigation.
Human Relations Commission
The agency receives expanded statutory authority to receive and investigate charges of discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions.
Key Facts
- Prohibits employers from refusing to hire, discharging, or otherwise discriminating against individuals regarding compensation and terms of employment based on pregnancy, childbirth, or pregnancy-related conditions.
- Mandates that employers provide a pregnant individual with a leave of absence for sickness or temporary disability related to pregnancy, treating them the same as other employees on temporary disability leave.
- Requires employers to allow a pregnant individual to return to the same job or a similar job of at least the same pay after taking pregnancy-related leave, unless business necessity is demonstrated.
- Obligates employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related conditions, including modified work schedules, modified work assignments, seating, equipment modifications, temporary transfers, and break time and space for expressing breast milk, unless it imposes an undue hardship.
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- Defines pregnancy-related conditions to include miscarriage, pregnancy termination, pregnancy complications, recovery from childbirth, and lactation.
- Allows an individual claiming unlawful pregnancy discrimination to file a civil action in the General Court of Justice within three years of the alleged discriminatory act.
- Permits courts to award back pay, reinstatement, compensatory damages, injunctive relief, and reasonable costs and attorneys' fees in successful civil actions.
- Empowers the Human Relations Commission in the Civil Rights Division of the Office of Administrative Hearings to receive and investigate charges of discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions.
- Amends Chapter 168A of the General Statutes to include temporary disabilities caused by pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions under protections against handicap discrimination.
Frequently Asked Questions
What accommodations are considered reasonable for pregnant workers under this bill?
Can an employer deny accommodations to a pregnant worker?
What legal remedies are available if an employer discriminates based on pregnancy?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Currently in committee. The next step in the legislative lifecycle is Floor Vote.
Procedural history
3 actions- Apr 14, 2025HouseRef To Com On Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House
- Apr 14, 2025HousePassed 1st Reading
- Apr 10, 2025HouseIntroducedFiled
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Show 17 more sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Expansion of Equal Employment Practices Act
The bill explicitly integrates pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions into North Carolina's foundational employment non-discrimination statutes and handicap protection framework.
Connected Entities
Sources
www.ncleg.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance85How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy45Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz55Current news / social attention level
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