Sometimes it is easy to know if family responsibilities discrimination lurks in your workplace: you’ve been sued for pregnancy discrimination or FMLA retaliation or sex discrimination based on motherhood. Most times, it isn’t easy. Short of a lawsuit, what are the tip-offs that your workplace has a problem? Your company has a history of
The District of Columbia Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act of 2014 (PPWFA) became effective March 3, 2015. The new law significantly expands existing protection for pregnant workers. Under existing law, employers were already required to accommodate pregnancy-related conditions that met the definition of disability. Some argued that employers were also required to accommodate pregnant women who did
The Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) yesterday issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would revise the existing Sex Discrimination Guidelines. The revision would set forth the requirements for covered federal contractors and subcontractors to prevent sex discrimination in employment. The notice will be published in the Federal Register tomorrow,
Employment lawyers and HR professionals now have a go-to reference for issues involving employees with family caregiving obligations: Family Responsibilities Discrimination by Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Joan C. Williams, and Gary Phelan (Bloomberg BNA 2014). Just published, this first-of-its-kind legal treatise provides a comprehensive explanation of the rights and obligations of employers and employees when employees
Getting and keeping the best male employees requires not only providing flexibility but also supporting it, a new study by the Working Mother Research Institute says. Most men surveyed are working flexibly (77%), and most said their employers encourage flexible work (62%). The 1000 men surveyed were mostly white, college-educated, breadwinners who were dads, but
The EEOC issued a lengthy and detailed enforcement guidance today that summarizes the changes over the past30 years in the laws that affect pregnant employees. Here are 10 key things the EEOC said employers need to know now to make sure they treat pregnant employees lawfully: 1. The fundamental rule of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act
Failing to accommodate pregnant employees, paying mothers less and harassing men who take family leave are going to draw the attention of the EEOC over the next several years. Here’s what employers can do now to avoid the agency’s spotlight. The EEOC approved a Strategic Enforcement Plan last month, laying out for employers the areas
Most employers treat pregnant women fairly. Bathroom breaks, seated work, water and snacks, help with lifting and the like are made available as needed not only as a matter of human decency but also as a matter of good human resources management. After all, keeping good employees and enabling their productivity accrues directly to the
Family responsibilities discrimination rarely springs from spite and malice. Almost always, as I point out in FRD prevention trainings, supervisors are trying to do the right thing for their companies and even for their employees when they cross the line into discriminatory action. Unfortunately, the road to the courthouse is paved with supervisors’ good intentions.
“There is a world of difference between caregiving and workplace flexibility,” Joan Williams, brilliant thinker and founder of the Center for WorkLife Law, told the EEOC last week. Her discussion focused on the very common misconception that family responsibilities discrimination is about alternative work schedules – a mistake so common that even Judge Preska of