No doubt there is a powerful trend toward workplace flexibility.  It is no longer a question of whether employers should make it possible, but how well they will do it.  As if to emphasize that point, regulators have made it clear that employers cannot discriminate against employees because they have family responsibilities.  They cannot, for example, hold people with child care or eldercare needs to stricter work schedules or pay people working part-time for family reasons less than others doing the same job on a full time basis.  

In 2007 the EEOC issued guidelines guarding against this discrimination.  Now, a number of key states have crafted legislation that would make it illegal. (New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Montana, New York and California, and others).  This train is clearly moving.

Employers must be more careful, more communicative, and more consistent about their flexible work practices.

Actually, that’s a good thing, because even though having more choice and control over how, when, and where they work is great for employees – it may benefit their employers even more. (When employees telecommute, employers save millions - literally -- on office space -- and that's only one example.)   But sometimes it takes a nudge to get out of an old mindset – that flexibility can be both an employee ‘perk’ and a better way to do business.

You can read more about Family Responsibilities Discrimination—employment discrimination based on an employee’s family caregiving responsibilities— in a new research brief for state policy makers, entitled Addressing Family Responsibilities Discrimination. Both the research brief and a press release about it are available on the WorkLife Law website. The brief describes state policy efforts to address family responsibilities discrimination (FRD) including statistics on FRD, why FRD is a policy matter, and how FRD negatively impacts both employees and their employers.

Individuals can learn more about how to protect themselves here.  We welcome your stories and questions…and ideas.