The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recently issued guidance to help employers avoid discrimination lawsuits filed by workers with caregiving responsibilities.

The online document, Employer Best Practices for Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities, offers practical and legal advice on creating and maintaining caregiver-friendly workplace polices, especially personal or sick leave rules that allow workers to use leave to care for ill family members.

The content also explains flexible work arrangements, part-time opportunities with proportional compensation and benefits, and federal laws that address unlawful discrimination against caregivers.

For example, employers are prohibited from:

• Assuming that female workers who work part-time or take advantage of flexible work arrangements are less committed to their jobs than full-time employees.
• Assuming that male workers do not, or should not, have significant caregiving responsibilities.
• Steering women with caregiving responsibilities to less prestigious or lower-paid positions.
• Treating male workers with caregiving responsibilities more, or less, favorably than female workers with caregiving responsibilities.

The best-practices guidelines act as a companion piece to the 2007 guidance, which outlines how federal anti-discrimination laws apply to workers with caregiving responsibilities, said Stuart J. Ishimaru, acting chairman of EEOC, during a panel discussion last week on workers with caregiving responsibilities.

“The poor economy and lack of job creation means that families will need to ensure that they do what they can to keep parents working. The impact of family responsibility discrimination on family well-being is potentially more devastating than ever before,” said panelist Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

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