Workplace of Choice

According to a recent article from the Bureau of National Affairs, family responsibilities discrimination suits are on the rise, a 400% increase over the last decade.  More importantly, the cases that have been filed have had a 50% success rate and several cases have been awarded over $10 million dollars. Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD) encompasses pregnancy discrimination, discriminatory conduct aimed at mothers or fathers, and discrimination directed at workers with family caregiving responsibilities.  The Center for Work Life Law recently completed a study, the Family Responsibilities Discrimination Litigation Update 2010.  In this study, the most frequent FRD cases include pregnancy and maternity leave issues.  In addition, a wide range of discriminatory conduct by employers was cited in the study including: termination, pregnancy discrimination, failure to promote, unlawful disparate treatment of a female caregiver versus a male caregiver, hostile work environment, unlawful caregiver stereotyping, unlawful gender role stereotyping of women, discrimination against women of color, and retaliation.

So what does this mean for your organization?   Given this data and increasing litigious climate around family responsibilities, employers must really take a good look at their Work/Life policies, Leave of Absence policies, and reflect on management’s views of family responsibilities.  Organizations not only need to have the right policies in place for employees, but managers need training on how these policies apply, training on how to handle various situations that arise with employees and their work schedules, training on how to utilize employees with flexible work arrangements in order to accomplish all of their goals, performance management training, coaching employees guidance, and management 101 training for new managers.  Managers should understand their organization’s policies so they can make decisions based on what is a business necessity, rather than make a decision based on a bias they may have around an employee.

Work/Life policies must include procedures that outline everything from flexible work arrangements, hours of work, Family Leave policies (even if the organization does not qualify for the FMLA), and Maternity/Paternity leave policies that not only work for female employees but also work for male employees.  Many states are pushing for a balanced policy for both sexes.  In addition, employers should consider that their “best practices” include a ban against family responsibilities bias, as well as workplace anti-discrimination policies. 

All in all, employers who may think they promote policies that offer flexibility and fairness to their workforce really need to ensure they are delivered in the same consistent and fair manner for each employee and that managers are properly trained to implement those policies.  Inconsistency and unwritten expectations can cause employees to feel their manager or the organization is unfair, which in turn, can lead to trouble and possible litigation for the organization.