May 15, 2020
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Early Discrimination Lawsuits Under Families First Act Highlight Potential New Front in Employment Discrimination

Stephanie Jones, director of revenue management for Eastern Airlines, is one of the first people to file a lawsuit under the newly enacted Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Jones alleges that Eastern Airlines violated the Act by firing her instead of providing her several hours a day for childcare management after her 11-year-old son’s Pennsylvania school closed due to coronavirus. 

The Families First Act stipulates that employers must give employee-parents whose children’s day care facilities or schools closed in response to coronavirus paid leave if they cannot work remotely. It came into effect on April 1, and it requires employers to provide up to 10 weeks of partially paid family leave as well as leave to medical workers.

As we have previously highlighted, childcare has become increasingly precarious for many workers, whether they are low-wage, “essential” workers or those who have been furloughed or are working from home. Few facilities have remained open for fear of contributing to the outbreak, leaving parents in the difficult position of choosing between family and employment, often an impossible choice with the pressures of meeting rent, buying food, and ensuring families maintain their health care coverage.

Although Jones’s case is one of the first suits brought post-outbreak, her issue is an all-too-familiar one, which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been tracking for years. Since the EEOC’s guidance, released in 2007, there has been an even greater uptick in the number of caregivers who are employed and concomitant discrimination cases, according to a 2016 study conducted by the Center for Worklife Law.  

Legal experts and observers expect that Jones’s case is only the tip of the iceberg regarding caregiver discrimination because of coronavirus. It is also a growing field of struggle in employment discrimination, as conflicts between employers and caregivers increase there will surely be more legal and legislative battles over rights and provisions regarding family responsibilities discrimination.

Special Issue of Harvard Law & Policy Review Focuses on Pregnancy

December 7, 2020
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The Harvard Law & Policy review has recently devoted an issue to the special theme of “The Politics of Pregnancy.” It contains numerous responses to and discussions of myriad political issues of pregnancy in the U.S. and abroad, including increased emphasis on maternal health, abortion access, surrogacy, and state intervention into matters of women’s health, including the effects of incarceration on mothers.

Can Employers Require Workers to Get Vaccines?

December 3, 2020
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Now that a vaccine, or more accurately, many vaccines, seems inevitable, an important new question has emerged: Can employers require workers to vaccinate?

Changes to New York Employment Laws to Have Lasting Impact, Says Law360

December 3, 2020
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This week Law 360 published a helpful guide to how the pandemic has changed employment law in New York and what kinds of impacts those changes will have into 2021 and beyond.

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