34 CFR § 106.57 - Parental, family, or marital status; pregnancy or related conditions.

§ 106.57 Parental, family, or marital status; pregnancy or related conditions.

(a) Status generally. A recipient must not adopt or implement any policy, practice, or procedure, or take any employment action, on the basis of sex:

(1) Concerning the current, potential, or past parental, family, or marital status of an employee or applicant for employment, which treats persons differently; or

(2) That is based upon whether an employee or applicant for employment is the head of household or principal wage earner in such employee's or applicant's family unit.

(b) Pregnancy or related conditions. A recipient must not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of current, potential, or past pregnancy or related conditions.

(c) Comparable treatment to other temporary medical conditions. A recipient must treat pregnancy or related conditions as any other temporary medical conditions for all job-related purposes, including commencement, duration and extensions of leave; payment of disability income; accrual of seniority and any other benefit or service; and reinstatement; and under any fringe benefit offered to employees by virtue of employment.

(d) Voluntary leaves of absence. In the case of a recipient that does not maintain a leave policy for its employees, or in the case of an employee with insufficient leave or accrued employment time to qualify for leave under such a policy, a recipient must treat pregnancy or related conditions as a justification for a voluntary leave of absence without pay for a reasonable period of time, at the conclusion of which the employee shall be reinstated to the status held when the leave began or to a comparable position, without decrease in rate of compensation or loss of promotional opportunities, or any other right or privilege of employment.

(e) Lactation time and space.

(1) A recipient must provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk or breastfeed as needed.

(2) A recipient must ensure that an employee can access a lactation space, which must be a space other than a bathroom that is clean, shielded from view, free from intrusion from others, and may be used by an employee for expressing breast milk or breastfeeding as needed.

[89 FR 33896, Apr. 29, 2024]