Pennsylvania Code › Title 16 - COMMUNITY AFFAIRS › Part II - Governor's Office › Subpart A - Human Relations Commission › Chapter 51 - DISCRIMINATION WITH RESPECT TO ABORTION AND STERILIZATION › RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF INDIVIDUALS › Section 51.44 - Reasonable accommodation to rights of employes

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a) It is the goal of the Commission to
					 encourage all employers and their employes to anticipate any interference in
					 the regular course of business activites which might be caused by the exercise
					 of the rights of an employe under §§
											51.41-51.43 (relating to rights and
					 obligations of individuals) and that such advance planning shall enable the
					 parties to develop a satisfactory course of action to be followed in all such
					 instances.
(b) Employers who are
					 covered by section 5.2 of the act (43 P. S. §
												955.2), relating to discrimination with
					 respect to abortion and sterilization, have a duty to make reasonable
					 accommodations to the needs of their employes, as specified in this section,
					 where such persons express either a willingness or refusal to perform or
					 participate in abortion or sterilization procedures based upon the lawfully
					 stated grounds of objection thereto which willingness or refusal requires the
					 employe to refrain from performing his normally assigned duties or where an
					 employe manifests an attitude with respect to abortion or sterilization. In all
					 cases where it is reasonably foreseeable that a manifestation of attitude or a
					 willingness or objection with respect to abortion or sterilization will result
					 in an interference with the performance of duties required of an employe in the
					 normal course of his employment, such employer may require advance notice
					 thereof by the employe. This notice is necessary so that the claim and the
					 needs of such person may be evaluated by the employer prior to the anticipated
					 interference and enable the employer to make reasonable accommodations to such
					 manifestation of attitude or willingness or objection, with respect to
					 sterilization.
(c) The reasonable
					 accommodations made by the employer to the needs and desires of such employes
					 are such accommodations which may be made without undue hardship to the conduct
					 of the employer's business. Such undue hardship, for example, may exist where
					 the employe's needed work cannot be performed by another employe of
					 substantially similar qualifications in the situation where and at the time
					 when the person refuses to perform or participate in the performance of
					 abortion or sterilization procedures or where the employe refuses to perform
					 his normally assigned duties incident to employment.
(d) Because of the particularly sensitive
					 nature of the problems raised in this area and the needs and personal
					 requirements of each person with respect to performance or participation in
					 abortion or sterilization procedures or the manifestation of attitude with
					 respect thereto, the employer shall have the burden of proving that an undue
					 hardship renders the required accommodations to such needs and requirements of
					 the employe unreasonable.
(e) The
					 Commission will review each case on an individual basis, in an effort to seek
					 an equitable application of the provisions of this chapter to the variety of
					 situations which may arise due to the moral, religious, or professional
					 practices and requirements of the citizens of the Commonwealth.