Tag Archives: Chapter 151B

Last week, the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed the Massachusetts Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.3680). If the bill becomes law, it will expand employment protections for pregnant workers in Massachusetts, most significantly by requiring that Massachusetts employers provide pregnant workers with reasonable accommodations.

Massachusetts already prohibits discrimination against pregnant employees, as Massachusetts courts have recognized that pregnancy discrimination is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Massachusetts’s anti-discrimination statute,… More

Late last month, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision addressing a plaintiff’s evidentiary burden in employment discrimination cases brought under the Massachusetts anti-discrimination law, Chapter 151B.  Breaking with precedent under federal anti-discrimination law, the SJC held in Bulwer v. Mount Auburn Hospital that a plaintiff employee can defeat a motion for summary judgment by offering evidence that the defendant employer’s stated reason for its allegedly discriminatory action was false. … More

A few years ago, a bill was introduced in Massachusetts that would have prohibited discrimination on the basis of height and weight. Other than generating a few chuckles and general consternation, the bill went nowhere. But it seems the bill is back.

On July 29, the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development voted to advance House bill No. 1764, which would add the words “height” and “weight” to the list of protected categories under Chapter 151B,… More