Female California correctional officers will no longer have to break up inmate fights or carry out other physically demanding tasks while pregnant under a policy change at the state corrections department.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation made the change after women filed three separate lawsuits charging they were denied light duty accommodations well into their pregnancies.

The women said the department’s policy forced them to choose between their babies and their jobs by requiring them to work through pregnancies without relief, lose pay while on leave or risk losing critical certifications during temporary assignments in other positions.

The new policy, revised in February and approved by the state’s Office of Administrative Law early this month, applies generally to workers with temporary medical limitations. While it doesn’t specifically identify pregnancies, the policy applies to pregnant women, department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said in an email.

“The change was done out of recognition that the existing policy lacked sufficient flexibility for some employee situations, including pregnancies,” Thornton said in the email.

The policy says temporary reassignments will require less inmate contact and less strenuous work. Workers would retain all licenses, certifications and qualifications during periods of modified duties, according to the policy.

The change was set to go into effect on April 1, but the department has delayed the training sessions that would have been required to fully implement the new policy because of the coronavirus outbreak, Thornton said.

Prisons have been instructed to follow the “spirit” of the change, Thornton said. Requests for light duty assignments or modified work will be reviewed at the department’s headquarters in Sacramento until the training is done, she said in the email.

The most recent lawsuit over the change was filed a year ago in Los Angeles County Superior Court by six female prison employees who had been denied pregnancy accommodations. The suit was filed as a class action.

“They were thrilled and relieved,” Arnold Peter, attorney representing the women, said of his clients. “Some of them are pregnant again. They’re relieved for themselves but really relieved that other employees won’t have to go through what they went through.”

In September, a judge issued an order to the corrections department to offer light duty to the six women in the lawsuit, who had each been denied accommodations during pregnancies. The ruling didn’t extend to other women working at the state’s prisons.

The new change will allow all women working in the prisons to transfer to assignments such as a prison mail room during their pregnancies or to modify their jobs to make them more manageable while pregnant, Peter said.

The women in the lawsuit are still seeking remedy for the leave time they used while pregnant and for losses in seniority status, he said.

The other two lawsuits from female correctional officers, filed in Kern and San Luis Obispo counties, have each been at least partially settled.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing joined the San Luis Obispo case against the corrections department shortly after the department reduced accommodations for pregnant women in 2015. The employment and housing department has not settled its claims, a spokeswoman for the employment department said.

In January, Assemblyman Rudy Salas, D-Bakersfield, proposed a law that would require the corrections department to offer light duty to pregnant women.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 5:30 AM.