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.
