Section 1. Accommodations for Employees with Disabilities
Upon request from an employee with a disability, MIT shall promptly engage in an interactive process and, as soon as practicable, provide reasonable accommodation(s) for the employee to perform the essential functions of their job, and/or to address health and safety issues that impede an employee’s ability to perform the essential functions of their job, consistent with state, federal, and local law.
Section 2. Gender Equity
MIT shares the desire that all employees be spoken or referred to by the names and pronouns they choose and will encourage all MIT students, staff, and faculty to do so. Employees who believe that their supervisor or coworkers are misgendering or deadnaming them may pursue informal resolution avenues offered by MIT.
The parties acknowledge that intentional and repeated misgendering or deadnaming by MIT constitutes harassment under Article 10, Section 2, Harassment, if sufficiently severe or pervasive. MIT will also add this example to the “Examples of possible harassing conduct” section in Policies and Procedures 9.5.
Employees may also seek informal resolution through the appropriate DLC head for concerns about misgendering or deadnaming by a supervisor. MIT shall enhance existing trainings of DLC heads to include education on this topic, as well as information about the application of MIT policies.
Upon written request from an employee, and at no cost to the employee, MIT shall, as soon as practicable, change all records within its control and which the employee cannot change themselves, including identification cards, to reflect the names and pronouns chosen by the employee. However, there may be circumstances where MIT is legally required to maintain a record of and report an employee’s birth name and sex assigned at birth, and doing so does not constitute a violation of this provision.
Section 3. Restroom Equity
Employees shall have access to appropriately signed gender-affirming restrooms, including both all-gender and single-sex restrooms, with sufficient capacity for regular usage. MIT shall ensure that all-gender restrooms in MIT Facilities–assigned space within office, classroom, and lab buildings are signed by September 2023. Furthermore, within six (6) months of the ratification of this Agreement, MIT shall publish the Campus Inclusive Restroom Study findings, which shall discuss the accessibility of types of restrooms across all MIT-owned non-residential buildings on the Cambridge campus. Employees may request that the signage for a single-user restroom be changed to all-gender by completing a signage request via Atlas. MIT shall also continue to maintain the MIT Digital Restroom Directory, which lists the locations of all restrooms (including all-gender restrooms) on campus.
Menstrual products shall be freely available in all new and renovated restrooms. Additionally, within six (6) months following the ratification of this Agreement, MIT commits to providing free menstrual products in at least fifty (50) restrooms, which it shall select based on the criteria developed as part of the Campus Inclusive Restroom Study.
Section 4. Religious Practice
Upon request by an employee submitted to GradSupport, MIT shall, as soon as practicable, provide reasonable accommodations for the religious practices of its employees, consistent with federal, state, and local law.
Section 5. Expressing Breast Milk
MIT shall provide a reasonable amount of break time for an employee to express breastmilk for a nursing child. MIT shall provide a space, other than a public restroom, that is clean, shielded from view, and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, in reasonable proximity to the nursing parent’s work location, that may be used for lactation. MIT shall also provide access to chilled (39°F or colder) storage space, or a personal cooler, and will otherwise comply with applicable state and federal regulations pertaining to breastfeeding.
Section 6. DE&I Training
In addition to required trainings, MIT shall provide all employees with access to online training modules that address diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as definitions and reporting processes surrounding sexual harassment and other gender-based discrimination covered by Title IX.