Pittsburgh Expands Office Protections From DV Discrimination

On December 6, 2021, then-mayor of Pittsburgh, Invoice Peduto, signed legislation amending town’s office antidiscrimination ordinance to incorporate victims of home violence as a protected class. Beneath the amended ordinance, employers with 5 or extra staff are prohibited from discriminating towards people based mostly on their precise or perceived standing as victims of home violence and should try to moderately accommodate such people, if wanted. The Pittsburgh Fee on Human Relations, which is tasked with imposing the ordinance, additionally established and launched employer guidance, shedding extra mild on these new necessities.

Beneath the ordinance and its accompanying steering, an employer (together with an employment company or labor union) could not refuse to rent, deal with much less favorably, or deny an individual employment, membership, or participation in a program based mostly on his or her standing as a survivor of home violence. As well as, an employer could not retaliate towards a person for searching for safety underneath the ordinance or implement insurance policies that disproportionately affect staff based mostly on their protected standing.

Notably, the steering additionally requires employers to have interaction in an interactive course of with staff who want affordable lodging based mostly on their standing as home violence victims. Examples of potential affordable lodging, in accordance with the steering, embrace the next:

• Modifying the structure of a workspace

• Adjusting work schedules

• Permitting for depart (e.g., for a court docket date or medical appointment)

• Enhancing insurance policies to make sure safety

• Switch or reassignment

• Altering a phone quantity or e mail

• Putting in a lock or safety system

• Creating code phrases to permit staff to soundly sign a necessity for assist, reminiscent of safety or police

An employer needn’t grant a particular lodging if doing so would impose an undue hardship on its monetary or administrative operations.

The steering warns that “it may be dangerous for the employer to demand ‘proof’” of a person’s standing as a survivor of home violence, and the steering is silent as as to if an employer could request supporting documentation (e.g., police or court docket information) in response to a request for depart. An employer could doc the data supplied by the worker in the course of the affordable lodging interactive course of.