June 2007
In This Issue
Treatment of Workers with Caregiver Responsibilities
Change in Anti-Discrimination Laws
Welcome Natalie Ditmars
Riley Celebrates 50 Years Practicing Law
Treatment of Workers with Caregiver Responsibilities
by Laura C. Mueller and Vernon P. Squires
Parents - particularly women with young children - should have a more reliable safety net with respect to their employment, according to a new guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The Commission issued the guidance in May to protect caregivers and identify unlawful conduct that could include the following:
- Reassigning a woman to a less desirable project assuming that, as a new mother, she will be less committed to her job.
- Reducing a female employee's workload or scheduling her for fewer shifts after she assumes full-time care of a niece assuming that, as a female caregiver, she will not want to work overtime or will not be able to perform the job requirements.
- Failing to offer a female employee a promotion based on the assumption that she won't relocate her family.
- Denying a male caregiver leave to care for a child under circumstances where leave would be granted to a female.
- Asking only female applicants whether they are married, have children, or have childcare arrangements.
- Selecting both male and female employees for an executive program, but only selecting men with preschool aged children, not women.
Entitled
Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities, the guidance notes that while more women are entering the workforce than ever before, they also remain primary familial caregivers, both for their own children and their aging parents. The guidance does not create a new protected class under federal discrimination laws. It recognizes, however, the connection between parenthood, especially motherhood, and employment discrimination. The EEOC makes clear that an employer can violate federal discrimination law when it takes actions or limits opportunities for employees because of beliefs the employer has about mothers and caretakers that are linked to sex.
For employers, the guidance suggests a need to be more alert to employees' care-giving responsibilities. The question employers should ask is whether a worker is being treated unfairly compared with other individuals not in his or her protected class. In other words, it would be unlawful for an employer to reduce a female employee's workload after assuming caregiver responsibilities if that employer would not take the same action for a male employee who has assumed the same caregiver responsibilities. Importantly, the guidance does not excuse poor performance attributable to care-giving responsibilities.
In his statement at the May 23, 2007 meeting, EEOC Office of Legal Counsel Ernest Haffner stated, "Unlike many other forms of discrimination, discrimination against working mothers and other caregivers is often blatant. Hopefully, with the issuance of this guidance, that situation will change, and caregivers will not be held to different standards than other workers." Given the Commission's proclamation, employers should consider incorporating the above information into employee training and company practices and procedures.
Change in Anti-Discrimination Laws
by Laura C. Mueller
In this year's legislative session, both the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill amending Chapter 216 of the Iowa Civil Rights Act to protect against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, public accommodations, credit, housing, and education. Under the law, sexual orientation is defined as "actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality" and gender identity is defined as "a gender-related identity of a person, regardless of the person's assigned sex at birth." On May 25, 2007, Governor Culver signed the bill, which will become effective on July 1, 2007.
Sexual orientation and gender identity join race, creed, color, sex (i.e., gender), national origin, religion, ancestry, and disability as protected classes. While many local cities and municipalities, including Cedar Rapids, already had ordinances making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, this is now a statewide mandate. Given these changes to our State's laws, we recommend that our clients with EEOC/anti-discrimination policies in their employee handbooks amend the handbooks to reference sexual orientation and gender identity and include these new protected classes in staff training.
Welcome Natalie Ditmars
Bradley & Riley welcomed Natalie K. Ditmars as an associate with the firm on April 23, 2007. Natalie received her bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science from Iowa State University, with distinction, in 2002 and received her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law, with distinction, in 2005. She practices in the area of Civil Litigation and works primarily in the Cedar Rapids office.
Riley Celebrates 50 Years Practicing Law
Byron "Buck" Riley reached a momentous milestone this month as he has been practicing law for 50 years! Many individuals at Bradley & Riley have been working with him for half of that time period, which we believe is a testament of the integrity of the firm he and Mr. Bradley started 25 years ago. Congratulations, Mr. Riley, on an ongoing, successful career!
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