The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) has radically shifted how human resources professionals manage workplace accommodations. By establishing an affirmative duty to accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions, the law requires employers to be more proactive and flexible than ever before.
But what happens when an employee's request simply cannot be met?
While the PWFA strongly favors the employee, it does not mandate that employers grant every single request unconditionally. There are specific, legally defined circumstances where an employer can lawfully deny an accommodation. However, navigating a denial is a high-risk compliance maneuver. A poorly handled rejection can instantly trigger an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation, costly litigation, and severe damage to your employer brand.
In this guide, we will break down exactly when and how you can legally deny a PWFA accommodation request. We will explore the rigorous legal definition of "undue hardship," clarify the critical difference between a mere inconvenience and a significant business disruption, and explain the strict requirement to offer alternative accommodations before issuing a final denial.
Before you can understand when to deny a request, you must fully grasp what you are required to approve. As we discussed in our earlier guide, [What Counts as a Reasonable Accommodation Under PWFA?], the PWFA requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant and postpartum workers unless doing so would cause an undue hardship.
Unlike the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the PWFA does not require the employee to prove they have a severe disability. They only need to communicate a "known limitation." Once that limitation is communicated, the interactive process begins.
The EEOC has made it clear that basic requests—such as allowing a worker to carry a water bottle, take extra restroom breaks, or use a stool—are "predictable assessments." These should almost never be denied. Denying a predictable assessment is a near-guaranteed compliance failure. You can only consider denying a request when it involves complex operational shifts, massive financial costs, or severe safety risks.
Under the PWFA, the only lawful defense for denying a reasonable accommodation is proving that it would cause an "undue hardship" on the operation of your business.
The legal definition of undue hardship is "significant difficulty or expense." It is a deliberately high bar. The EEOC requires employers to look at the holistic picture of their organization, not just the isolated impact on a single department or manager.
When evaluating whether an accommodation creates an undue hardship, the EEOC considers several specific factors:
Because pregnancy-related limitations are inherently temporary, the EEOC expects employers to absorb a much higher degree of disruption than they would for a permanent, lifetime accommodation under the ADA.
The most common mistake frontline managers make is confusing "inconvenience" with "undue hardship."
A manager might want to deny a request to change an employee's shift because rewriting the schedule is frustrating. An HR generalist might want to deny a request to temporarily suspend a lifting requirement because it means reassigning tasks to other team members who might complain.
These scenarios are inconveniences. They are not undue hardships.
An inconvenience is anything that requires administrative effort, minor financial outlay, or a temporary adjustment to normal workflows. Examples of inconveniences that you generally cannot use to deny an accommodation include:
An undue hardship occurs when the accommodation threatens the financial viability or core operations of the business. Examples include:
Understanding this distinction requires deep, specialized knowledge of federal employment law. This is why foundational HR Certifications are critical for your human resources team. Certified professionals understand how to weigh these factors objectively, protecting the company from emotional or rushed decision-making by line managers.
If you have carefully evaluated the request and determined it goes beyond an inconvenience, you might have grounds for a denial. Here are the primary scenarios where an employer can legally deny a PWFA accommodation request.
You can deny an accommodation if it would fundamentally alter the nature of your business operations.
For example, imagine a small retail store with only two employees working per shift. One employee is pregnant and requests to work exclusively from home as an accommodation for severe fatigue. Because the fundamental nature of a retail associate's job requires being physically present in the store to assist customers and manage inventory, allowing them to work from home would fundamentally alter the business. The employer can likely deny this specific request due to undue hardship.
While the EEOC expects employers to spend some money to accommodate workers, they do not expect you to bankrupt the company. If the cost of the requested accommodation is exorbitant relative to the size and financial resources of the organization, it can be denied.
However, you must be prepared to prove this financial burden. If a multi-billion-dollar corporation claims that buying a $500 ergonomic chair is an undue hardship, the EEOC will immediately reject that defense. Conversely, if a small business with 15 employees is asked to completely remodel their facility to minimize a pregnant worker's walking distance at a cost of $50,000, that would likely qualify as a legitimate undue hardship.
If an accommodation poses a direct, severe safety risk to the employee, their coworkers, or the public, it can be denied.
For instance, if a pregnant worker in a chemical manufacturing plant requests to stop wearing specific, mandatory protective gear because it is uncomfortable over her growing abdomen, the employer must deny that request. The safety risk of chemical exposure outweighs the accommodation. (Note: The employer must then look for an alternative accommodation, such as providing larger protective gear or moving the employee away from the chemical area).
Under the ADA, if an employee cannot perform the essential functions of their job, they can often be denied accommodation. The PWFA changed this rule.
As we detailed in our guide, [The PWFA Interactive Process Explained Step-by-Step], the PWFA requires employers to temporarily suspend essential job functions if the inability to perform them is temporary, and if the function can be resumed in the near future (generally defined as up to 40 weeks).
You can only deny the suspension of an essential function if you can definitively prove that suspending that function would cause an undue hardship. For example, if a pregnant firefighter cannot perform the essential function of entering a burning building, and there are no desk-duty roles available without creating a new position, the department might have grounds to deny the accommodation and place the worker on leave instead.
Here is the most critical rule of the PWFA interactive process: You can almost never issue a flat "no" and walk away.
If you determine that an employee's specific requested accommodation causes an undue hardship, your legal obligation does not end. You must continue the interactive process and offer an alternative accommodation that is equally effective, or as effective as possible, without causing an undue hardship.
Let’s return to the example of the pregnant retail worker who asked to work from home. The employer correctly determined that working from home fundamentally alters the retail business and causes an undue hardship.
The employer must now pivot and offer alternatives. The conversation should look like this:
"We cannot approve the request to work from home, because we need an associate physically in the store to assist customers. However, we understand you are experiencing severe fatigue. As an alternative, we can offer to reduce your shifts from eight hours to four hours, provide a stool behind the register so you do not have to stand, and allow you to take three additional paid rest breaks during your shift."
If the employer simply says, "No, you cannot work from home," and forces the employee to continue working their regular, grueling schedule, the employer has violated the PWFA.
Sometimes, an employer cannot find any operational accommodation that keeps the employee working without causing an undue hardship. In these rare cases, a leave of absence (paid or unpaid) becomes the alternative accommodation.
However, under the PWFA, you cannot force an employee to take a leave of absence if another reasonable accommodation would allow them to keep working. Leave is the accommodation of last resort.
Managing leave accommodations requires flawless coordination with your payroll and benefits departments. Transitioning an employee to unpaid leave impacts their health insurance premiums and tax-advantaged accounts. Ensuring your team is equipped with up-to-date Benefits Training guarantees that an approved accommodation does not inadvertently result in a benefits compliance violation.
Denying an accommodation request—even a legally justified denial—creates a fragile employee relations environment. Employees who feel unsupported during pregnancy are highly likely to file retaliation or discrimination claims.
The PWFA strictly prohibits employers from retaliating against an employee for requesting or using an accommodation.
Retaliation is not always as obvious as firing an employee the day after they ask for a stool. It often takes subtle, insidious forms, such as:
If you must deny an accommodation, your documentation must be impenetrable. You must document the exact business reasons for the undue hardship, the alternative accommodations you offered, and the ongoing dialogue you maintained with the employee.
Furthermore, you must ensure that frontline managers do not take matters into their own hands. A manager who feels frustrated by an employee's limitations might inadvertently retaliate by treating them poorly.
This is where proactive education saves companies millions in legal fees. Deploying comprehensive Supervisor Training ensures your leadership team understands the extreme legal risks of retaliation and knows how to manage accommodated employees fairly and legally.
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was designed to keep pregnant workers safely employed. While the law recognizes that businesses have operational limits, the standard for denying an accommodation—undue hardship—is exceptionally high.
Before you deny a request, you must separate minor administrative inconveniences from true financial or operational burdens. If a denial is necessary, you must aggressively pursue alternative accommodations through the interactive process. A flat rejection is a red flag to the EEOC.
Navigating these complex waters requires a highly trained HR team and a management structure that understands the nuances of federal civil rights laws. By prioritizing clear documentation, empathy, and continuous compliance education, you can protect your organization from liability while supporting your workforce through a critical life transition.
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