Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Issues Document Regulating How Employers Can Treat Employees With Various Caregiving Responsibilities

Nonprofit and Church Legal Trends - Free Edition - September October 2007 (free edition)

In the never-ending world of more regulations on how you can or cannot treat your employees, the EEOC has just released a comprehensive paper describing prohibited discrimination against workers with caregiving responsibilities. Although they admit that federal law does not prohibit discrimination against caregivers directly, there are circumstances where discrimination might be illegal as “unlawful disparate treatment” under the Civil Rights Act or the Americans With Disabilities Act. These “guidelines” apply not only to workers with childcare responsibilities but also to those caring for the elderly and individuals with disabilities. The main thrust of these guidelines is the observation that women with caregiving responsibilities may “be perceived as more committed to caregiving than to their jobs and as less competent than other workers.” Thus, employment decisions could be based on stereotypes that violate federal antidiscrimination laws even when an employer is acting unaware of those stereotypes.